Cover

Title Page

Dedication

For everyone longing to get away from
it all . . . This book’s for you.

Please note – I have taken some geographical liberties with the setting of this book, inventing roads and other locations to suit the purposes of the story. Humour me!

Prologue

The women were still sitting by the swimming pool, even though it was almost midnight. Up above, the stars were a handful of silver glitter against the inky black while the moon cast glimmering ripples of light into the water. The air smelled of wine and chlorine, with just a faint hint of ozone from the distant sea carried on the breeze.

A collection of empty glasses and plates around them signalled that this had been a long night. At an earlier point, as the sun vanished and the temperature began to plummet, one of the women had suggested bringing their duvets out to keep themselves warm, and now they were comfortably rugged-up and cosy on the sun loungers, laughing and exchanging confidences like girls on a sleepover.

‘This has been such a strange holiday,’ said the first woman just then. Strange but also surprisingly good in a lot of ways, she was thinking. Everything had changed. Even she had changed. For the first time in years, the future felt . . . interesting.

‘You’re telling me,’ said the second woman. Her mood wasn’t quite so optimistic. In fact she’d go as far as to say that the holiday had been a complete disaster. Would she ever get over what had happened this week?

Silence fell, except for the faint glugging of the water in the swimming-pool filter and the soft bumps of an inflatable flamingo against the metal steps as it cruised in slow, blind circles.

The third woman had been gazing up at the night sky, turning things over in her mind. Now she spoke. ‘I might regret this tomorrow,’ she said after a moment, ‘but I was wondering . . . can I tell you guys a secret? Like – something really big?’

Chapter One

FIVE DAYS EARLIER

There was a lot riding on this holiday, thought Em, folding T-shirts and packing them into a suitcase. Back when she’d made the booking – miserable and alone on Christmas Day – she’d had no idea that it would turn out to be anything other than another summer break for her, Izzie and Jack: two weeks of trying to force her teenagers out of bed before midday to enjoy the beautiful Cornish countryside and beaches, plus at least one waistband-punishing cream tea for good measure. But now . . . Well, everything was different now. Their fortnight away was shaping up to be a whole new kind of trip.