“Okay. Noah and I will go and wait by the van,” says Paige. “What about Jack?”
“Well, he was fast asleep when I came down,” says Rachel. “So, probably best to leave him.”
“Sleeping off a hangover, is he?” asks Ali, laughing wryly.
“Something like that,” says Rachel through a forced smile.
“Ali?” Will calls. “Can you grab my wallet from downstairs?”
“Actually, I’m going to stay here if that’s okay,” she calls back. “I just need to make a couple of phone calls—make sure the yoga’s booked and my manicure is sorted for this afternoon.”
“Okay, cool,” says Will. “Is there anything you need?”
“I can’t think of anything,” says Ali. “Oh, apart from that sardine paste that they do out here. If you see any of that, grab some and we can have it on toast—it’s insane.”
“No worries,” says Will, laughing. “Give us a call if you think of anything else.”
“Will do,” says Ali as she disappears down the steps from the patio into her and Will’s room below.
“Where’s Ali?” Paige asks, as the four of them climb up into the minibus Will has rented.
“She’s got some jobs to do,” says Rachel. “Says we need to get some sardine paste if we see any.”
“I remember her loving that stuff the last time we were here.”
“I didn’t realize we had the option of staying here and putting an order in,” says Paige quietly.
Rachel smiles at Will in the rearview mirror. “So, what time are your mum and dad coming in?”
“Around three,” he says. “They’re all on the same flight—about thirty of them.”
“Have your parents met Ali’s parents before?” asks Noah from the front seat.
“Yeah, once or twice. But I’m sure a few bevvies on the plane will get them better acquainted.”
“By the time dinner comes around, they’ll be ten sheets to the wind,” says Noah, laughing. “It’ll be a fitting end to your last night as a single man.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” says Will, veering off the dual carriageway.
“So, how are you feeling about tomorrow?” Rachel asks as they pull up outside a surprisingly large supermarket. “Nervous?”
“I’m actually all right,” says Will. “I’m a hundred percent sure I’m doing the right thing, so I guess that helps.”
“There’s not a tiny part of you that’s questioning it?” asks Paige.
Rachel and Noah both look at her, as if silently asking why she would need to say that.
“What?” she retorts. “It’s only natural to feel a smidgen of doubt. I certainly did when I married you.” She looks to Noah who seems momentarily perplexed by his wife’s admission.
“And there’s me thinking we were one another’s true loves,” he says, as he slams the door of the van a little harder than necessary.
“I only had doubts because I wasn’t sure it was what you wanted,” says Paige as they all walk across the parking lot toward the shop’s entrance.
Rachel can’t help but feel that this is an odd place for a married couple to be having a conversation like this.
“Why would you have thought that?” asks Noah, as Rachel attempts to quicken her pace to join Will, who is just a few steps ahead.
“Because I wasn’t entirely sure that it was me you wanted to be with.”
Rachel’s heart feels like it’s stopped and if she couldn’t see her feet still moving, she’d be sure she was rooted to the tarmac of the parking lot.
Noah laughs nervously. “I don’t know why you’d think that.”
“Because I really wasn’t sure what had gone on between you two,” she says.
Rachel can feel Paige’s eyes burning into her and she’s glad her back’s to them.
“It seems preposterous now,” Paige goes on. “And I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but you two had such a history together that I couldn’t quite believe that it was purely platonic.”
Rachel can feel her mouth drying up as she walks faster, overtaking Will at the automatically opening door.
“I mean, it’s entirely possible,” Paige goes on, laughing. “I can see that now, but eighteen years ago, I didn’t know you very well, Rachel, and I was immature and perhaps a little insecure.”