Satisfied that she was comfortable, Joe ferried both her and the red kayak into waist-height water, giving the elongated canoe a friendly slap on the rump as he headed back to shore. Looking around for Alex, Kate saw him cutting through the water towards her in the yellow kayak, a smile on his face so wide that she felt the corners of her own mouth lift.
‘OK?’ he asked.
‘Great!’
‘Right then – follow me.’
Kate gripped her paddle and dipped one end into the water, pulling back so that the kayak was propelled forward, then doing the same thing again on the opposite side.
It was working. She could do it!
After only a few strokes, Kate felt confident enough to speed up, and she stayed close on Alex’s tail as he weaved them through the flotilla of boats that had been moored in the cove.
‘Where are we going?’ she called.
‘Anywhere you want,’ he called back, and Kate felt a thrill of anticipation. As much as she had loved being on the speedboat with Toby and Filippo, and how ardently she had enjoyed the sensation of rushing air and roaring engine, there was something even better about being in a kayak. The further she and Alex paddled, the quieter it became, and soon the only sounds were the soft splashing of their oars and the gentle whisper of the wind. Kate kept expecting to stare down and no longer be able to see what lay below the water, but the sea was as clear out in the open as it was around the shoreline. She pictured them as a fish might, two dark oblong shapes hundreds of metres above, as tiny to such a creature as a plane in the sky was to her. The thoughts of James, of Nika and her baby, and of her own failure to conceive were all still there, but diminished now, as if rubbed faint by an eraser. Faded like the scars Alex had shown her.
Instead of leading her in the direction of Hvar Town, Alex had headed east as they emerged from the cove, and they were now adjacent to an area of the island that Kate had never seen before.
‘Is that the road up there?’ she asked, as the distant roof of a car slid past beyond the treeline.
‘Yes, but not the main one – that’s set inland a bit. All the buildings you can just about see through the branches, those are private homes – expensive ones at that.’
‘Oh, to be rich,’ she sighed, but Alex did not seem to share her enthusiasm.
Kate paddled faster until she drew level with him. She was not the tidiest of kayakers, and the front of her spraydeck had collected a neat puddle of seawater in the ten or so minutes they’d been afloat.
‘What? You’re telling me you don’t have aspirations of becoming a millionaire?’
‘Not really, no.’
‘But think of all the good you could do,’ she badgered. ‘And all the things you could buy.’
‘Look around you,’ said Alex, drawing a circle in the air with his paddle. ‘At the clouds, the trees, the sky, the water, the sunshine – it’s all free. It belongs to everyone. I could be the poorest man in the world and still have everything I wanted or needed.’
‘Isn’t that a bit of an idealistic viewpoint?’ she said. ‘There are plenty of people that will never have the means to see places as beautiful as this one. We’re privileged to be here, to have the ability to travel and visit new places.’
‘I would argue that everyone can see sky, everyone can feel the air on their cheeks, the heat and the cold, the rain and the wind.’
‘That’s all well and good,’ she said, as Alex leant back in his seat, ‘but you still need to pay your rent and put petrol in your car, buy soap and toothpaste, see a doctor if you’re ill. All those things require money.’
‘Some money,’ he countered. ‘Not millions.’
‘So, if I were to offer you ten million pounds right now, no strings attached, you’re saying you would refuse to accept it?’
Alex considered this for a minute. ‘That amount of money would get me an awful lot of attention,’ he said. ‘And to tell you the truth, I don’t much fancy the sound of that. Can you picture me in a sports car, or on one of those ridiculous yachts?’
‘I can actually,’ Kate said with a laugh. ‘And it’s the juxtaposition that’s amusing me. You could have a gold kayak!’
‘A gold kayak, you say?’
‘Why not?’
‘Because it would sink, you wally.’
Grabbing her paddle in mock offence, Kate used it to flick water across his chest.
‘Come on then,’ he said challengingly. ‘What would you do with ten million quid?’
‘Buy a fleet of gold kayaks.’
‘Well, yes – that goes without saying. Anything else?’
Kate thought for a moment, steering her mind away from the ridiculous.
‘I would probably buy a house – a home, you know? Where I was living before, with Ja – with my ex, it belonged to his grandparents, who left it to his parents. We just rented it from them. And it never felt like ours, not in the way I wanted it to anyway. I still had so much of my stuff in boxes, because it felt so temporary. Turns out my gut feeling was right,’ she added, the smile that had followed them right around the next curve of the island drooping under the weight of her sudden despondency.
‘You’re the opposite of me,’ Alex said quietly. ‘I don’t have much of anything to keep in boxes – and I prefer it that way. The freedom to move around, to get in the boat and go whenever I want to.’
‘I wouldn’t trust that boat to get you very far,’ she quipped, and this time it was Alex’s turn to give her a drenching.
With the atmosphere between them restored to one that thrived on the exchange of silly banter, they paddled on along the coastline trading increasingly outlandish ideas of how to spend their imagined millions. Alex pointed out first Mekicevica Beach, then the wildlife refuge of Versteckte Bucht, which he explained was on the outskirts of Milna.
‘There’s so much of the island I have yet to see,’ said Kate. ‘I will get around to it, I’ve just been so busy at the hostel. We both have,’ she added. ‘In fact, nobody has worked harder than you have this past week.’
‘You say that,’ Alex tempered, ‘but until you arrived, there was no real vision for the place. You should give yourself credit for coming up with so many ideas.’
Kate immediately became coy. ‘Oh, I haven’t done anything really,’ she protested, but Alex was shaking his head. ‘What?’
‘I should have said this earlier,’ he told her, ‘when I was talking about how much in life is free – how we so often confuse the things we want with the ones we need.’
‘I remember,’ said Kate.
‘I forgot to mention one more thing, something even more important than all this around us now.’
‘What thing?’
Alex lowered his paddle until it was balanced across the seat of his kayak before raising his hands to his chest.
‘This, in here,’ he said, tapping where Kate knew his heart must be. ‘Who we are, the things that make us unique. Those secret parts that nobody else will ever see but us, the thoughts and feelings that only we understand, the talent and belief which are ours and ours alone. I get that you could spend millions learning new skills, but the thing is, you cannot buy natural talent – that is something you’re born with, a genetic miracle.’
‘Are you saying that my decoration mood boards make me a genetic miracle?’ she teased, but Alex was not laughing.
‘All I’m saying is that you’re you,’ he said simply. ‘An exceptional, singular, special, inimitable one of a kind. And that,’ he added, giving Kate a look that was both impassive yet utterly direct, ‘is more important than anything money could ever buy.’
Chapter 21
The dawn sky that set the scene for the hostel’s official opening day was a pale lilac shot through with streamers of golden light, but unfortunately for Kate, she did not get to see it.
For the first time since her arrival in Croatia, she had slept in – and she was horrified.
‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ she complained t
o Toby, who had the misfortune to be passing her bedroom as she burst out into the stairwell. ‘There’s so much still to do!’
Toby raised an eyebrow over the crate of beer bottles he was ferrying upstairs to the bar. ‘Relax,’ he said. ‘Everything we need to function has been done, the rest is just decoration.’
‘But the decoration is everything!’ she cried. ‘The bedroom chairs still need to be painted, there’s a stack of postcards waiting to go in frames, about twenty plants in reception that need repotting, and Alex promised he would put up some utensil hooks in the kitchen.’
‘They’re next on my list,’ called a voice from below.
Kate, who had promptly turned puce with mortification, hurtled back into her room and slammed the door. Cursing her own foolishness – she knew she should have worked on through the night to get all the little jobs done – she yanked on the leggings and old T-shirt that had become her uniform over the past few days, both of which were so encrusted with paint that they practically stood up to attention. There was no time for make-up, but she did clean her teeth and gargle some mouthwash whilst briefly checking her phone for any signs of life from James. There was nothing, of course, but at least the views of the #WannabeWife video had slowed from thousands to hundreds. Kate did not check any of the comments; she was in an edgy enough mood already.
After first pressing her ear to the door to make sure Alex wasn’t lurking right outside, Kate stepped back out into the stairwell only to trip over a passing Siva, who hissed in outrage and scratched her ankle.
‘You are such a cow,’ she muttered, wiping ineffectually at the blood as the cat strode serenely away.
‘Wrong species,’ said a voice, again from below.
Kate hopped forwards and peered through the banisters, to where Alex was papering the stair risers with some leftover scraps of wallpaper.
‘Morning,’ he said. ‘Or should I say afternoon?’
‘Oh don’t!’ Kate gripped the sides of her face. ‘I can’t believe it’s almost ten. I never sleep late, not ever.’
‘Well, I guess there’s a first time for everything,’ he replied cheerfully, as Kate scoffed with self-vexation.
‘Where do you want me?’ she asked, only to turn immediately red.
What the hell was wrong with her today?
Alex went back to papering, not looking at her as he said, ‘You’re the boss, but if you’re asking for my opinion, then I would start with the plants. Grab yourself a coffee, take them outside and slow the pace down a bit, right? If you try to do anything too fiddly now, when you’re all’ – he glanced at her – ‘het up, then you’ll only go and make a mess of it, won’t you? There’s hours to go yet; no need to tie yourself up in knots.’
Kate slumped. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ she said sulkily. ‘I’ll go and do the plants.’
She eased herself up from the banister rail and stepped down the stairs towards him. Alex scooted along to make room, but for some reason, Kate decided to pat him on the head as she passed.
‘Sorry.’ She snatched back her hand. ‘I have no idea why I just did that.’
Alex gave her a questioning look. ‘That’s all right.’
‘It’s really not,’ she said. ‘I patted you like a dog. I don’t think of you as a dog, you know. Just in case you were worried. I mean, not that dogs aren’t nice – they are. And you’re nice. I mean, easily as nice as any dog I’ve ever met. Probably nicer, in fact. Or definitely. Oh, for god’s sake. I’m going to stop talking now.’
‘If anyone here is a dog,’ Alex told her lightly, ‘it’s the one who is absolutely barking.’
As much as he wound her up with his teasing, Kate had to allow that Alex had been right about doing the replanting first. Being outside in the sunshine helped her to relax, as did the repetitive action of scooping out compost and patting it down. An hour after she had bolted upright in bed, Kate had finished the first of her tasks and was feeling much better, not least because Filippo had brought her a breakfast of toast and fruit, while Toby had insisted she wash it down with a glass of Bucks Fizz.
‘This is a day of celebration,’ he said firmly. ‘And nobody deserves to celebrate more than you. Honestly, I can’t quite believe the place looks as good as it does. I mean, who knew that avocado green was an acceptable wall colour? Or that dirty old garden gnomes would turn out to be such excellent bar ornaments?’
‘It was a team effort,’ Kate told him, shaking her head as he started to compliment her for all the work she’d put in. ‘I barely did a thing.’
In truth, Kate did feel proud of herself. It had felt so nice to be trusted with tasks, even if her employer – if that was the right word – was her brother, and for her ideas to be considered and taken seriously. If only she could have found her way into a career that provided the same amount of happiness – perhaps then, the idea of being a mother would not have become so obsessive, and she would not have ended up driving a wedge between herself and James.
Ever since the day she and Alex had gone out on the kayaks, Kate had managed not to allow her thoughts to stray too far into the murky waters of her recent break-up, but with her list of jobs now dwindling, they were beginning to wade out once again. Desperate for a distraction, she decided to go on a mini tour of the hostel and take photos of all the rooms before the guests started to arrive.
Starting at the Tiki Bar on the terrace, which was the only space that had not required much in the way of her creative input, Kate slipped into the first of the private double bedrooms on the floor below and closed the door. She could still hear the thud of feet on stairs and the occasional shout as her brother and the team of last-minute helpers yelled out instructions to one another, but in here the sounds were muted and the pressure that she had felt all day began to subside.
To save both time and money, Kate had suggested they paint on wood panelling to break up the large empty walls, and in this room she had chosen a bright pine green for the outlines. Mounted inside the central panel was a large landscape painting of Hvar, while on either side, Alex had screwed in hooks from which Kate had hung small clay planters full of baby spider plants. Sourcing those had been easy – there were hundreds of them on the island, streaming out from every other balcony and window ledge she passed.
She snapped a few photos, crouching down so she could fit in part of the room’s double bed, its warm thulian throw tossed artfully over the bottom corner. They had bought a cheap batch of fifteen beige blankets and dyed them in the laundry room downstairs. Kate had enjoyed wandering around with the pile heaped over one arm, draping them over the back of chairs and sofas. It did not matter that warm summer nights in the Adriatic had no cause for extra layers – it was about the cosiness of the blankets; how they made a person feel when they walked into a room – invited and at home. Toby and Filippo had told her on the night she arrived that what they wanted more than anything was for their guests to feel as if this was a home-from-home hostel – a concept that fitted their welcoming nature and open hospitality perfectly. Kate hoped these little touches would help to reinforce that idea.
Moving around to the other side of the bed, Kate captured an image of the footstool – one of the sets that she and Alex had rescued from the skip – admiring its ripe-pear paint job and carefully selected stack of second-hand books about Hvar and the neighbouring islands. While the dormitories were stripped back and functional, these private rooms had more scope for adornment, and Kate hoped her attention to detail would be appreciated by whomever came to stay.
There was a knock at the door.
‘Nims, are you in there?’
Toby peered through the gap, smiling when he saw her.
‘Our first customers have just arrived,’ he said. ‘I thought you’d want to be there to welcome them with us.’
‘Oh, I do!’ Kate took one final picture of the huge vase of fake hydrangeas in the bathroom and made her way towards him. ‘I was just taking some photos while it’s all still perfect.’
‘Good idea,’ he appraised. ‘You should put them all on Instagram – people love all those “swipe right to see the transformation” posts, don’t they?’
‘Don’t you want them on the Sul Tetto account?’ she asked.
‘We can share. You’re the main reason it looks so nice in here anyway. I know you keep pretending that what you’ve achieved is no big deal, but it is. It’s miraculous. You should show it off – should want to show it off.’
Kate bit down on a smile of pure pleasure as she followed her brother down the stairs. If she wanted to show off her work, she would need to open another Instagram account. If she put any pictures of the hostel on her personal one, it would immediately reveal her location to James and, for now at least, Kate wanted to remain elusive. She still believed it was her best course of action when it came to getting James’s attention. And if she did start a little interior design account of her own, then maybe, just maybe, when James did begin speaking to her again she would have something of value to show him. Something that he would rate, that would help him remember why she was worthy of his love.
She had nothing to lose, after all. Because she had already lost everything.
Chapter 22
The opening party was scheduled to start at sundown, but in the end, corks started popping as soon as the first ten guests ventured to the terrace, lured up from their respective dorms and bedrooms by sounds of merriment and the smell of barbecuing fish. Toby, who had donned a green shirt and pink bow tie for the occasion, was having a great amount of fun creating experimental cocktails over at the Tiki Bar.
‘What the hell is in this?’ spluttered Kate, who had just taken a sip of something her brother proudly declared was a ‘Toby Le Rone’.
The Getaway: A holiday romance for 2021 - perfect summer escapism! Page 12
