Bonnie’s head moves sharply back to Carla, who has clearly just read this information on her phone. Maybe she shouldn’t be rushing back to her hometown. ‘We just had a couple of drinks and caught up.’ Bonnie tries to sound casual, but Carla sees straight through it.

‘Faith McKinnon just sent me this.’ Carla holds up her phone for Bonnie to see. It’s a photo of Bonnie and Oliver near the pool table. They’re standing much too close, smiling, lustful. There’s no way she can argue innocence.

Bonnie swallows hard, her lips remembering Oliver’s. She tries to think of something to say but words escape her. She’d wanted Oliver, he’d wanted her. ‘Please make sure that photo is deleted.’

Carla knows her well enough to know something more happened. ‘Bonnie, he’s engaged.’ Her tone is more sympathetic than Bonnie had been expecting. She’d assumed Carla would be angry.

‘I know.’ She can’t hide the sadness in her voice.

‘Oh, Bon.’ Carla’s face fills with concern. ‘You still love him?’

Bonnie quickly shakes the question off before it has a chance to settle. She will not let herself even think about loving a man who is engaged to somebody else. ‘We were just drunk, catching up on old times.’ She shakes her head. ‘It shouldn’t have happened.’

Carla looks stricken.

‘I didn’t sleep with him,’ she hastily adds. But she would have if Sophie hadn’t shown up when she did. The knot in Bonnie’s stomach pulls a little tighter.

‘Is that why you agreed to audition?’

Bonnie had outright refused when Carla turned up a couple of weeks earlier, announcing she’d secretly sent in an application for Bonnie to be a contestant on The One and that she’d made it through to the auditions. Bonnie almost choked. She might have been lonely in love, but she wasn’t desperate enough to try to find it on a reality TV show.

But that had been before Oliver James moved back to town. Before she’d had something, someone to run away from.

Chapter 2

2

Penelope’s phone vibrates. She knows it’s him ringing again without even checking the screen. Her throat tightens, knowing a text message with a blur of words will arrive within minutes. She won’t read it. She’s learned that the hard way. His words make her doubt her decision. Instead she looks out to sea and tries to focus on the calming waves rolling in onto the shore.

Warm memories try to come to the forefront of her mind. Her skin prickles at this, craving the sweetness of such thoughts to take over her body. But she forces her mind to take control. She clamps her eyes shut and makes herself focus. A cold ocean breeze comes whipping and chills her to the core.