“Here we are,” said the driver as we pulled up outside a gated home, its gates wide open. When I opened my car door, I could hear music.

Siobhan paid the driver while Josh and I got out of the taxi and waited for her. “Hey,” he said, pulling me towards him with one hand. In the other, he was carrying a one-litre bottle of vodka.

I met his gaze. “Hey,” I said back.

“You’re beautiful, you know?”

I smiled tautly, still stinging a little from how uncomfortable he’d been in the taxi. “Thank you.”

“No, I mean that. I’m glad we weren’t just a holiday fling.” What?!

My breath caught in my throat and I stared at him wide-eyed. What he’d said—that meant what I thought it did, right? And had he felt that way since Greece, or was it Siobhan’s words that made him realise? Either way, it felt like a pivotal moment for us and tears prickled my eyes. I blinked them away—all that mascara!

“I feel that way too,” I replied, my voice thick and raspy.

He kissed me hard—smudging my lipstick, but I didn’t care—just as Siobhan opened her car door. “All right, you two, the night is young. You’ve got plenty of time for that,” she teased.

Josh and I broke apart, both wearing embarrassed smiles, and his eyes locked onto mine. He seemed about to say something else, but Siobhan broke the spell. “Come on,” she said, linking her arm through mine and pulling me away. I linked my other arm with Josh’s and the three of us walked up the driveway like we were off to see the wizard or something.

The party was going off, as we like to say in Australia. And the house! It was a gorgeous beach-style mansion decorated in neutral colours, with lots of natural textiles and light-wood furniture. I could have moved in right then had there not been seventy-five people—dancing, drinking and laughing—filling every room.

We were greeted at the door by a stunning Hawaiian woman wearing a bikini top and—I kid you not—a grass skirt. She looked like she’d stepped off a postcard. “Aloha!” she said with a huge smile of perfect white teeth. She placed a lei around each of our necks.

Siobhan leant close to my ear. “Fecking ’ell, how gorgeous is she?”

I turned my head so I could talk into her ear over the music. “I know! Ridiculous.”

“Almost as hot as us,” she quipped. I barked out a laugh.

“What’s that?” asked Josh loudly.

“I said, let’s find Paddy,” Siobhan practically shouted—the music was extremely loud. She grabbed my hand and I grabbed Josh’s just as she pulled me through the crowd. We emerged onto a patio that was lit by fairy lights and tiki torches and ran the length of a long narrow pool, girls in teeny bikinis and guys in boardshorts bobbing about in it. It looked inviting, but I was happy to stay dry and looking fabulous.