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Holly wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there. She was determined not to move until she knew what she was going to do next, and how on earth could she know what she was going to do next when it still didn’t make sense to her what she’d already done? She had kissed Giles. That was what he’d said anyway, but she didn’t believe that. She had been there. She had seen the way his body moved towards her. Felt the way he pulled her closer into him. She had been the one to break away. That she was certain of. And that had to count for something, right?

As she buried her head in her hands, all she could see was Giles’s face after the moment. The way he had looked so appalled. Disgusted even. Because they had kissed. It was such an absolute mess.

With a sudden burst of focus, she picked up her phone. She needed to ring him. She needed to put things straight. That was what she needed to do. Yet how could she ring him when Sienna was probably there? It didn’t matter how much she disliked the woman; it didn’t change what Holly had done, and that wasn’t the type of conversation Giles would be able to have with her in the room, was it?

As a new surge of panic kept her pulse unhealthily fast, Rhubarb appeared at her ankles, meowing softly.

‘I think Mummy might have messed this up. Badly,’ she said to the cat. ‘What do you think I should do? I have to do something, right?’

Rhubarb meowed again. It wasn’t the most conclusive answer, but it was as close as she was going to get to one.

So, what about a text? She switched from phone calls to open up a message but struggled to know what to write.

Sorry we kissed? No, she definitely couldn’t put something like that in a text. What if Sienna saw it appear on his phone? No, that wasn’t a great idea. So, if she couldn’t ring or message, what could she do? She didn’t know, but she was still staring at her phone when it started buzzing in her hand.

‘Oh God!’ she said, as she jumped so high, she accidentally threw it up into the air. Had Giles beaten her to it? Was he ringing her? If so, he was going to expect her to say something when she didn’t know what the hell she could say. The phone landed face down on the sofa beside her, still buzzing. Did it normally sound this angry when it buzzed? She didn’t think so. Regardless, it was showing no signs of stopping. She had no choice but to answer it.

With her throat so dry she could barely swallow, Holly inched towards the phone, then flicked it over with one finger, like it was some dead thing she didn’t want to touch. When she saw Jamie’s name flashing on the screen, her whole body groaned with relief.

‘Hey,’ she said, still waiting for her pulse to lower as she answered the call.

‘Hey, what’s going on?’

And just like that, it was rising again.

‘What do you mean, what’s going on?’ she said. ‘Nothing is going on. Why do you think something is going on? I’m fine. Nothing is going on here at all. Why do you sound as if you think something was going on?’

Holly clamped her mouth shut.

‘Okay, that was very, very weird,’ Jamie said. ‘I’m here with Hope. She said Giles came over, and we assumed you were going to come back and get her, but that was over half an hour ago. Is everything all right? Did something happen between you and Giles?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know. You’re just behaving strangely.’

Holly let out a deep sigh. Should she tell Jamie? She floated the idea, only momentarily, before she pushed it away again. Jamie was close to Giles now, just as she was to Ben and every other member of the group. It didn’t make sense to bring anybody else into the situation. Not when it meant she would have to lie or hide things from them.

Besides, there was something else Holly could say. A half-truth.

‘Sienna and I had a bit of an argument. A bust-up on the first day there.’

‘What? Why didn’t you say anything? What did you do?’

‘It wasn’t that big a deal. Or at least, I didn’t think it was. But then Sienna went home to Giles crying about it. Obviously, he wasn’t happy, so he wanted to check that stuff was okay, to clear the air and things.’

‘And did you do that? Did you manage to clear the air?’

Holly closed her eyes, only for an image of Giles’s lips pressed against hers to fill her mind. She could still feel the way his hand had slipped around her waist and how her fingers had toyed with the hair at the nape of his neck. She could almost feel the rhythm of his pulse too, they had been that close.

With a sharp breath in, Holly snapped her eyes back open again.

‘Yes, sort of… yes, yes. Everything is fine. Completely fine.’

‘Okay then, so do you want me to give Hope dinner here or send her back around to you?’

Holly thought about the question for a second longer.