‘How romantic,’ Jemma smiled, checking the caller ID on her phone. ‘It’s Cal; do you mind if I get this, hon?’
Aimee shook her head, sitting back and looking around her, recognising quite a few of the passengers from The Atlantica as they wandered past, but with the harbour only being a pleasant twenty minute walk away from the main town, quite a few people were obviously plumping for the go-it-alone option and exploring the place without the help – and the added expense – of Laugh-A-Minute-Lydia.
Spying Bob and Barbara walking towards the café, she smiled and waved, Barbara running towards her, carrier bags swinging by her sides, her flip-flops slip-slapping against the concrete, Bob following at a far more leisurely pace, puffing away on a cigarette.
‘Guess where we’ve been?’ Barbara gasped, throwing herself down into an empty seat next to Aimee, putting a hand to her chest as she tried to get her breath back. ‘Bob, love, get me a coffee will you? I’m parched here.’
Bob rolled his eyes, blowing smoke up into the air, signalling to a waiter to bring them two coffees.
‘We’ve been to see the Barbary Apes,’ Barbara went on, not waiting for Aimee to try and guess where they’d been, which suited Aimee just fine. She wasn’t really in the mood for guessing games. ‘You know, those monkey’s that hang about on that big rock thing.’
‘That big rock thing?’ Bob said, sitting down in the remaining empty chair at Aimee and Jemma’s table. ‘You’re talking about The Rock of frigging Gibraltar, woman! Probably the biggest chuffing tourist attraction this place has to offer!’
Barbara waved away his comment with a sniff, turning back to Aimee. Jemma was still talking to Cal, giggling away like a lovesick teenager. ‘Ignore him. He’s just in a mood ‘cause one of them monkey’s nicked his packet of fags.’
Aimee couldn’t help but laugh, despite Bob’s less-than-impressed expression. ‘They nicked your fags?’ Aimee giggled, taking another sip of wine. It was gorgeous! And it was making her feel so relaxed, which was nice. She liked being relaxed. She hadn’t felt this relaxed since… Well, that didn’t matter anymore, did it?
‘It was his own fault,’ Barbara sniffed, smiling at the waiter as he placed two coffees down on the table. ‘They tell you, when you get to the top of the rock, to take off any shiny jewellery, any loose items of clothing, and make sure you’ve got nothing sticking out of your pockets because they’re little buggers, those monkeys. They’ll have it away with anything loose if they can grab it. But this one…’ She indicated Bob with her head but he wasn’t paying any attention to her, he was too busy taking in the view as two tall, dark haired women walked past in tight white jeans and tiny tops. ‘He takes no notice. Thinks he’s above all that. Leaves his fags sticking out the top of his shirt pocket, so of course the monkey’s think they’re fair game. Jumped on his shoulder and just whipped them right out from under his nose. I nearly wet meself laughing! His face was a picture!’
Bob sneered at her, and all that did was make Barbara laugh harder, which in turn started Aimee off again.
‘Anyway, that’s enough excitement for one day, isn’t it love?’ Barbara said, leaning forward to rub Bob’s knee. He took her hand and squeezed it, smiling at his wife, and Aimee hoped with all her heart that she and Robbie could have a marriage like theirs. ‘We’re back off to the boat for an afternoon by the pool, aren’t we, you old northern whinge bag?’ Barbara smiled back at her husband.
‘We are,’ Bob said, stubbing his cigarette out in the ashtray in the centre of the table. ‘Worn me out it ‘as, going up that rock.’
‘Oh, Bob. Come on. You went up there in a cable car, it wasn’t like you had to scale the bloody thing yourself!’
‘I’m not a young lad anymore, woman. I’m nudging sixty I am. Time to start taking it easy.’
‘Get away with you!’ Barbara smiled warmly at her husband. ‘You’ll never be old to me, Bob Barraclough… Ooh, where are the loos round here? That coffee’s going straight through me.’
‘I’ll show you,’ Jemma said, finishing her conversation with Cal and slipping her phone back into her bag. ‘I could do with going myself.’
‘Back in a tic,’ Barbara smiled, pushing her chair back and following Jemma inside.
Bob watched them leave. ‘Do you lot always go to the bog in pairs?’
‘Not always,’ Aimee replied. ‘I guess it’s just a woman thing.’
Bob lit up another cigarette, taking a drag and blowing smoke up into the clear blue sky before he spoke. ‘I’ve just seen your young man.’
Aimee looked at him, narrowing her eyes. ‘Robbie?’
‘He is your young man…’ A couple of beats. ‘Isn’t he?’
Aimee was confused now. What was Robbie doing here? He said he wasn’t going to bother coming ashore, just wanted a lazy day on the boat topping up his tan.
‘You’ve seen Robbie?’ Aimee asked, just wanting to make sure she’d heard right.
‘Would you rather I’d seen the other fella?’ Bob puffed more smoke out into the sunshine, and Aimee ignored the question.
‘What was he doing?’
‘’e was just hanging around that little café over there,’ Bob replied, nudging his head in the direction of the other side of the square. ‘The one with tables under the shade of that big tree.’
‘Did he see you?’ Aimee asked, still confused as to why Robbie was off the ship. Why hadn’t he told her?
Bob shrugged. ‘No idea, kid. Hang on, isn’t that ‘im over there?’
Aimee looked out into the square, and sure enough, there was Robbie – looking gorgeous in black jeans and a T-shirt, dark glasses covering his eyes – walking towards them, a big smile on his handsome face.
‘Babe!’ he grinned, approaching the table, arms open wide, leaning over to plant a kiss on Aimee’s mouth. ‘I’ve found you!’
‘Robbie? What the hell are you doing here?’
‘Fancied a bit of sightseeing. No law against it, is there?’
‘Well, no. But why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming ashore? We could have met up…’
‘We’ve met up now, haven’t we?’
Bob looked at Aimee, raising an eyebrow, taking another drag on his cigarette. Aimee just frowned at him as Jemma and Barbara arrived back, chattering away ten to the dozen, until they saw Robbie.
‘Oh. Hello,’ Barbara smiled. ‘You’re Aimee’s young man, aren’t you?’
Robbie threw her one of his best dazzling smiles, causing Barbara to start simpering like a schoolgirl. ‘I certainly am,’ Robbie grinned as Jemma looked at Aimee with raised eyebrows, to which Aimee just shrugged.
‘I thought you were staying on the boat today?’ Jemma said, sitting back down and refilling her wine glass, topping up Aimee’s at the same time.
‘Changed me mind,’ Robbie replied, sticking his hands in his pockets. ‘Decided to come and see if my gorgeous fiancée fancied spending a bit of time with me this afternoon.’
‘Just the two of you?’ Jemma asked, sipping her wine, fixing Robbie with a look that told him in no uncertain terms that she was still highly suspicious of him.
‘Well, I wasn’t banking on a group outing,’ Robbie replied, staring back at Jemma.
Aimee quickly intervened, not in the mood for a best friend/boyfriend spat spoiling the afternoon. ‘I’m with Jemma though, Robbie. You knew we were spending the day together…’
‘Oh, actually, it’s probably worked out just perfectly to be honest,’ Jemma said, quickly finishing the rest of her wine. ‘Because Cal and the band have just finished filming for the day and he’s at a bit of a loose end now. If you and Robbie want to spend some time together then I’ll go back to the boat with Bob and Barbara and see what my favourite pop star is up to. If you don’t mind, that is.’
Aimee looked at Jemma, then at Robbie, who was busy accepting a cigarette off Bob as they chatted about football. ‘Oh… Okay then.’ It wasn’t the way she’d planned to spend her afternoon, but
what did it matter? And anyway, shouldn’t she be happy Robbie had come looking for her? Shouldn’t she be happy to be spending some quality time with the man who’d come all the way to Majorca to join her on this cruise just so he could tell her how sorry he was for hurting her?
‘Right, come on, Bob,’ Barbara rallied, nudging her husband as she gathered all their carrier bags together. ‘We’ll get back to the boat and grab a sunlounger round by that pool. I’m gasping for a Slow Comfortable Screw.’
‘Hang on, I’m coming with you,’ Jemma said, sliding her bag up onto her shoulder and her sunglasses down over her eyes, going over to Aimee and kissing her cheek quickly. ‘You gonna be okay?’
‘Of course I’m gonna be okay? Why wouldn’t I be okay?’
Jemma just shrugged. ‘No reason. See you back on the boat later then. Have fun!’ And then she was off, tottering after Bob and Barbara in her silver and black sandals, her wide-brimmed hat flopping up and down as she ran.
Robbie sat down in Jemma’s vacated seat, looking at Aimee, his dark glasses still covering his eyes. ‘So, do you?’
Aimee frowned. ‘Do I what?’
‘Want to know what your favourite pop star is up to?’
She looked away for a second, focusing on the mountains in the distance that bore down on this beautiful, pretty little square, surrounded by miles and miles of cobalt blue sky. Then she turned back to look at Robbie, who’d removed his dark glasses, pushing them up into his black hair, his eyes fixed on hers.
‘Why didn’t you just ring me and tell me you wanted to meet up this afternoon, Robbie?’
He shrugged, picking up Jemma’s glass and draining it of the dribble of wine she’d left in the bottom. ‘I just fancied stretching me legs, Aimee. A little walk, a bit of a nose around the town, that’s all I’d intended to do. Then I was just gonna go back to the boat, I didn’t want to disturb your day with Jemma. But then I thought, well, I’d really like to see you. I mean, we haven’t actually spent any time together off the ship, have we? All these beautiful places, and we haven’t looked round any of them together. As a couple.’
He was right. They hadn’t. But then, he wasn’t supposed to be here, was he? On this cruise. He wasn’t supposed to be here at all. But now that he was, it seemed stupid not to see some of these places together. They might even pick up some ideas for their honeymoon. She felt her stomach give another back flip as she thought about the wedding again. She was marrying Robbie Cartwright! And once again her days were filled with thinking about dresses and table settings and – honeymoons!
‘Aimee?’ Robbie’s voice punctuated her thoughts of which song they’d have their first dance to and she smiled at him, reaching out to take his hand.
‘Yeah. I think it would be silly not to make the most of you being here now,’ she said, that tingling feeling running up and down her spine as he gently stroked her fingers.
‘So, you’re not mad at me then? For just turning up like this and wrecking your afternoon with Jemma?’
‘Robbie, you haven’t wrecked anything. You heard Jemma. She’s got a better offer from Cal, hasn’t she? If you hadn’t have turned up I’d have only felt guilty all afternoon that I was keeping her away from someone she’d way prefer to be with. So, no. I’m not mad at you. It’s nice that you’ve just showed up. Something you seem to have a bit of a habit of doing these days.’
He laughed, a nice laugh, but nowhere near as nice as… No! She wasn’t thinking about Danny anymore, that was over, remember? That was over; and she was moving on.
‘I love you, Aimee.’
Aimee waited for her heart to skip that beat, looking right into his eyes, his hand still holding tightly onto hers. ‘Yeah.’ She was still waiting. Oh, there it was. Better late than never, huh? ‘I love you too, Robbie.’
And, as he leaned across the table to kiss her, slowly and softly, she waited again. She waited, and then she wondered why those skips were beginning to feel further and further apart.
CRUISE DAY 13
Almeria, Spain.
10:00am
‘Oh, Aimee, I’m glad I’ve found you,’ Brendon said, cornering Aimee as she left the Lido Café. ‘Your mammy.’
‘What about her?’ Aimee asked, looking behind her. Where the hell was Jemma? She’d been beside her not two seconds ago.
‘This ridiculous sham of a marriage she’s planning…’
Aimee craned her neck to look back inside the Lido Café, only to see Jemma chatting to a couple they’d sat with at dinner last night. Honestly, if you didn’t keep her on a tight rein she’d go wandering off at a moment’s notice, that one.
‘What? Sorry, Brendon. What were you saying?’
‘Your mammy and this Engelbert fella she seems intent on marrying… I’m just not sure about him, Aimee.’
Aimee looked at him, not missing the fact he was holding a pint of Guinness in one hand and a bacon roll in the other. What happened to a nice cup of tea with your breakfast? ‘Oh yeah? Anything in particular you’re not sure about?’ Aimee asked as they walked together, away from the café entrance.
‘He just seems to be asking an awful lot of questions of your mammy, you know?’
Aimee didn’t know, actually. She hadn’t seen much of her mother since Robbie’s unexpected arrival so she had no real clue what was going on with her and Engelbert/Ricardo. ‘Like what, Brendon? What kind of questions?’
‘Well, the other day, during your mammy’s talk in the Clipper Bar, y’know, the one about her new book – and, I have to say, Aimee, me darling, your mammy can give a good talk, she had that room spellbound she did.’
Hypnotised, more like, Aimee thought. And she wouldn’t put that past her mother. Anything to sell more books. Aimee was sure that’s why her publisher loved her, because she was never one to sit back and let them do all the work – Marcie Marcello liked attention more than anybody so she was quite willing to put herself out there at any opportunity.
‘Anyway, this Engelbert fella, he started asking your mammy all sorts of questions about how many books she’d sold, what kind of money she made from her writing, did she have a long contract with her publishers… It just made me a tad suspicious, you know?’
Aimee stopped walking, turning to look at Brendon, frowning slightly. ‘Did she tell him anything?’
‘I’m not sure, me darling. I was standing at the bar, you see. I could only hear the odd snippet of conversation, I didn’t want to eavesdrop or anything.’
‘So, are you sure you heard right then? He was actually asking her about money?’
‘Oh, no doubt about it, sweetheart. I tell you, I don’t trust the fella. It’s those safari suits – I kept telling Marcie, never trust a man with a wardrobe full of safari suits.’
Aimee started walking again, Brendon falling into step beside her.
‘So, I think you should, y’know, have a word with your mammy, me darling. I’m not trying to interfere or nothing, but I care about Marcie. She’s a fine specimen of a woman and I wouldn’t want to see her sucked in by some chancer.’
‘No… Thank you, Brendon. I’m glad you told me.’
Brendon smiled, taking a swig from his Guinness followed by a huge bite of bacon roll, winking at Aimee. ‘You’re a grand daughter, Aimee Anderson. I know you won’t let your mammy come to any harm. You’ll do her right.’
Aimee returned Brendon’s smile as he strode off down the corridor, probably on his way for a top up. It was after 10am, after all. For Brendon that was starting late.
‘What did Brendon want?’ Jemma asked, catching up with Aimee.
‘Oh, something he overheard – to do with my mam and Ricardo.’
‘Oh yeah? The wedding off then?’
‘It will be if I’ve got anything to do with it. I’m with Brendon on this one. I don’t trust that safari-suit-wearing sleazeball, I never have. I mean, what kind of man actually has the name Engelbert?’
‘Engelbert Humperdinck?’ Jemma replied, examining her n
ails.
‘Apart from him. And that’s not his real name either, by the way.’
Jemma looked at Aimee as they continued to walk through the ship, past the Clipper Bar. ‘What’s been going on then? Hang on… you seen this?’ Jemma giggled, grabbing Aimee’s arm, pulling her to a halt.
‘What?’ Aimee turned round and came face-to-face with a rather large poster of her mother – in all her pink-haired, multi-coloured-kaftan-wearing glory, smiling into the camera, holding up a copy of The Sheriff’s Kiss - with the words “International Best-Selling Author Marcie Marcello returns to The Clipper Bar for another afternoon of romance. Join her here at 2:30pm” emblazoned across it.
‘They’ve missed the words bring your wallets with you off the bottom there,’ Aimee said, shaking her head as she stared at the poster. Her mother really was using this holiday as a means of putting herself about – in more ways than one. And since when had Marcie Marcello been an international best-seller? Talk about up-scaling your own career.
‘How does she keep her hair that colour?’ Jemma asked, cocking her head on one side as she looked at Marcie’s photo. ‘It’s always so vibrant!’
‘In this case, probably Photoshop,’ Aimee replied. ‘It’s amazing what they can do with airbrushing these days, I mean, look – she’s lost two chins in this picture!’
Jemma giggled, linking her arm through Aimee’s as they carried on walking. ‘So, what’s all this about Ricardo then? What’s the problem?’
‘Apart from him being some bloke my mother picked up in the embarkation queue and then decided she wanted to marry?’
‘Apart from that, yes.’
‘Brendon overheard him asking my mam questions about money – how much she earned, stuff like that… I just don’t trust him, Jem. I mean, for all my mam’s a bit out-there with this up-front image and larger-than-life personality, she’s still really vulnerable since my dad left, you know? She’s easily sucked in by charm, and… I just don’t trust him. And now Brendon’s told me what he’s heard…’
‘What are you gonna do about it?’
Bon Voyage Page 25
