The Love Island Bookshop by Kate Frost (ebook reader with internet browser .TXT) 📕

cool towels had replaced her on the end of the walkway, ready to greet the newly arriving guests. The seaplane glided on to the water and taxied up to the end of the wooden jetty. The guests were welcomed and handed the cool towels, and their bags left on the dock to be taken to their villas. Aaron was the last one off, a gorgeously familiar figure, tall and eye-catching, relaxed in his own clothes, his T-shirt pale against his dark muscular arms, a bag slung over his shoulder. She wondered what he was thinking as he started to make his way along the walkway to the island. Was he thinking about her? Had he even once wondered if she was okay?

‘This is the new bookshop then?’ A deep Australian twang pulled her back to the present and away from the sight of Aaron disappearing beneath the trees.

She turned to the Australian couple. She’d spoken to them the previous week, when they’d spent a couple of hours browsing the shop and reading out on the deck.

‘For the time being, yes.’

‘Glad you’re okay,’ the wife said. ‘The fire’s been quite a talking point these last couple of days.’

‘Tell me about it.’ Freya laughed. ‘Are you after something new to read?’

~

Freya stayed at the makeshift bookshop until after dark. It was different being close to the heart of the island with guests coming and going all day. She knew she was delaying going back to the staff village and seeing Aaron. But she’d finished for the day, and guests were arriving to enjoy a candlelit dinner overlooking the glowing lagoon, so there was no longer an excuse. It was a magical spot with glass panels in the wooden floor next to each table with a view down into the coral reef.

Freya left and walked along the wooden walkway back to the beach, taking the path towards the staff village. The prospect of the inevitable conversation she had to have with Aaron hung like a dark cloud over her. It was winter in the UK, whereas the time of the year had become meaningless here. She adored the ease of throwing on summer clothes knowing the day would be hot. Even in the rainy season it would be the same, no umbrella or coat needed. On the walk back, to combat her churning stomach, she reminded herself of all the reasons she adored being on the island.

The courtyard was filled with people, but no Aaron, only his dive school colleague.

‘Bohdi, have you seen Aaron?’

‘I think he’s gone up to his room.’

Damn, she thought. She glanced around unsure what to do. Sod it. She’d built herself up all day to talk to him and after chickening out earlier, she wasn’t going to do the same again now.

Everyone was busy eating and chatting, so she slipped into the men’s block. She’d never been inside but it was the same layout as the women’s and she knew the floor and number of Aaron’s room. She raced up the stairs and snuck along the corridor. Aaron lived on the same level as she did in the women’s block, but his room was on the other side facing the trees.

Without coming across anyone else, she reached his room and knocked. The door swung open.

‘Freya.’ His hair was wet and his chest bare with only a towel wrapped round his middle. She didn’t know where to look. He glanced along the corridor. ‘You should not be up here.’ He smiled and pulled her into his room.

‘I know. Actually, I don’t know what I was thinking.’ She turned to go. ‘I can talk to you later.’

‘Don’t be silly.’ He pushed the door closed behind them.

His state of undress was a huge distraction. His muscles flexed as he finished rubbing his hair and dropped the towel on the back of a chair. He took her in his arms and Freya allowed herself to relax against his damp chest. The towel round his waist hid nothing. His hands dipped beneath her top, her earlier mistrust and confusion erased by a kiss. He manoeuvred her gently back against the wall. And then the image of him in the darkness, his face lit by flames, flashed across her mind.

She pulled away, put her hands firmly on his chest and looked up at him. ‘I came to talk. We need to talk, Aaron.’

He sighed and let go of her.

‘If this is about the other night, I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I went to get help, then there was such a commotion I was stopping people from heading that way. Then I was up early to catch the plane.’

‘So you didn’t once think to check on me?’

‘Honestly, Freya, it wasn’t that...’ He leant back against the opposite wall, his arms folded across his chest.

‘Then what was it? Because I’ve heard other things.’

‘Like what?’ His tone was as defensive as his stance.

Now she was in front of him, she wasn’t sure she should say anything. It was gossip and assumption, both what Meena had said and Zander had hinted at. They were alone and he looked hurt and upset. A small part of her wanted to go over and kiss him, push him on to the bed and repeat that night in his family’s guest house when everything had felt so easy and happy and exciting. But life was never as simple, kind and straightforward as that.

‘What were you doing there?’ Even in the compact room, her voice sounded small.

He looked at her stony-faced, his cheeks clenched. He turned away, picked up a pair of shorts and pulled them on beneath his towel.

‘You shouldn’t have come up here.’ He discarded the towel on his bed.

He’d changed his tune now sex was no longer an option.

Freya sighed. ‘None of it makes sense, Aaron. Why you were at the bookshop that time of night. Why you didn’t get help. Why you never came back. Zander suggested...’

‘Zander suggested. What poison has he been filling your head with?’

The hatred that