For some reason, Kim hadn’t let the others know about her accidental find at the villa. She wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to keep the mysterious journal to herself, at least until she’d got through reading it. Then maybe they could ask Valentina, the villa caretaker, who it might belong to. A previous guest, most likely. Or even the villa’s original owner.

In any case, it was an interesting diversion for Kim and she was more than happy to sit on the beach reading motivational quotes and life lessons while she pondered her next move, namely plucking up the courage to call her parents and confess where she was.

But the others seemed determined to get her in the water.

“Maybe later,” she mumbled to Colette. “I’m still pretty beat after the trek down here. And last night.”

The three had hit some of Positano’s hotspots again the night before and it was becoming a bit of a habit. One that Kim would need to nip in the bud if she was to have any cash left to continue funding her great Italian escape.

“I was tired, too, but the salt water really brushes off the cobwebs.” Colette shivered a little as a light breeze hit her drenched skin. “I’m going back in before I freeze. Coming?” she said to Annie, who nodded.

“In a bit. Just getting a drink.” She reached for a bottle of water beneath her things as Colette ran back toward the water.

“I really like her,” Kim chuckled as she watched Colette tumble into the waves. “A real breath of fresh air.”

“So do I. I have to admit, in the beginning, I wasn’t so sure about you, but I was wrong,” Annie admitted.

Kim was surprised, not at her candor—she’d learned very quickly that Annie spoke her mind and called it as she saw it—but at the admission itself. “Really? Why?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. I suppose I thought you were this stuck-up trust-funder who looked down on people.”

Kim sat quietly. She hadn’t expected the bluntness, but she would’ve been lying if she said she hadn’t heard the same before. People always thought they knew who she was—the irony was she barely knew herself.

“Whereas you’re actually all right,” Annie continued jokingly.

“So are you,” Kim replied. “Colette, too. I know we haven’t known each other that long but I feel lucky to have met you both. Feels like fate brought us together at the villa.” She’d come across an apt quote in the book just now about that very same subject.

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen.