Island Fling to Forever

‘The Naked Truth thing?’ Rosa winced. ‘Ouch.’

‘Yeah. The book came out this week.’

‘Which is why you decided to be on a remote Spanish island at the time.’

‘Exactly.’

‘Except now your fantastically twisted love life is following you here,’ Rosa commented.

Jude shot her a look. ‘In more ways than one.’

‘Well, you said you wanted closure.’ Jumping down from the box she was sitting on, Rosa busied herself with sorting through a box full of orders of service and menus and such, sending them flying into haphazard piles on the other boxes. Jude foresaw a lot of resorting them in his future.

A figure appeared across the courtyard: Anna. Rosa’s sister picked her way carefully past the reflecting pool towards them.

‘Looks like you have some closure coming your way, too,’ Jude said, nodding towards her.

Rosa spun round, then froze as she spotted Anna. The tension that had been hidden under casual, forced relaxation was suddenly obvious to all—but only for a moment. As Jude watched he could see Rosa purposefully relaxing her shoulders, her arms, as Anna grew closer. She took a few lazy steps towards her sister, then hopped up to sit on the large wooden table Sancia used for breakfasts, leaning back on her hands and waiting, letting Anna come the rest of the way to her.

Jude busied himself with the boxes, hoping it wasn’t too obvious that he was eavesdropping.

They didn’t hug. That was the first thing he noticed as the sisters greeted each other. What had Rosa said? That it had been three years since they’d last spoken.

He wondered if it was a coincidence that her last conversation with Anna must have been around the same time as she left him. Or was there more to the story than she’d told him before?

‘You made it back, then,’ Rosa said. ‘I thought you might decide to just stay in Barcelona with this Leo I’ve heard so much about from Mama.’

‘Not really my style, abandoning the family when they need me.’ Anna’s tone was mild, but Jude could hear a bite behind it.

‘Right.’ Rosa heard it, too, judging by the tightness of her reply. ‘Mama gave me my chore list, by the way.’

‘Good. Any problems?’

‘Other than the fact I’d be much more use to Mama out on the island, dealing with stuff, than stuck going through lists of bungalow allocations and boxes of fairy lights.’

Anna looked past her and her gaze alighted on Jude, who looked away quickly. He did not want to get drawn into a sibling squabble. It was the only advantage he’d found to being an only child—and besides, bandmate squabbles were bad enough for him.

‘Looks like you’ve found someone to palm some of the work off onto already, anyway,’ Anna said, drily. ‘Why am I not surprised?’

‘Well, since you were off gallivanting with your Latin lover, I had to work with what I had.’ Jude hadn’t expected Rosa to go into the details of their complicated history, but hearing himself resigned to leftover help stung a little all the same.

‘As long as it all gets done.’ Anna turned away. ‘Let me know if you can’t manage any of it.’ She tossed the words back over her shoulder as she walked away, and Jude saw Rosa’s hands clench up into fists before they relaxed again.

‘You okay?’ he asked softly, once they were alone again.

Rosa spun round so fast he wondered if she’d forgotten he was there. Again.

‘I’m fine.’ Her clipped words said otherwise, but Jude didn’t call her on it. Not yet, anyway. ‘Come on. Leave this. We’re going sailing.’

CHAPTER SIX

ROSA DIDN’T WAIT for Jude as she stormed down to the jetty. He’d catch her up if he wanted to come with her, and if he didn’t she’d go alone.

So, it seemed that regular sex with a man Sancia had described as a hunky pirate hadn’t mellowed Anna out any—which probably meant nothing could. She was still the big sister who thought she could run her life, who would always highlight her perceived mistakes and ignore her successes. Rosa didn’t know why she’d imagined for a moment that three years apart would have changed anything.

The hardest part was, even now Rosa could see that eighteen-year-old Anna had only been trying to hold the family together after Mama left, it seemed that twenty-eight-year-old Anna still thought Rosa was the sixteen-year-old little sister she’d got used to bossing about. She still didn’t trust her to take care of anything herself, not really. She had to control and manage everything, because only Anna could get it right.

Of course, some of that might be more to do with their argument three years ago...

Rosa shook her head. She wasn’t thinking about that now.

The small boats the resort kept for guests to borrow to sail over to the mainland were all neatly tied up along the jetty, each looking freshly scrubbed and cleaned—which made Rosa scowl even more. Just extra evidence of all St Anna’s hard work.

She squeezed her eyes tight and tried to get a grip on her temper. She was better than this. Older and if not wiser, at least more rational. She’d seen sights all over the world that others couldn’t imagine, highlighted horrific situations to the public, and uncovered forgotten treasures with her work. She was not going to let herself get all riled up by her sister’s martyr complex. That was just one of many things she’d decided to break free from when she’d left Britain, three years before.

The other main thing she’d broken free from caught her up pretty quickly, standing beside her as they stared at the boats.

‘So, where are we going?’ Jude asked, and Rosa realised that you couldn’t leave everything behind, every time.

Sometimes you had to stand and face them.

But not Anna. Not today.

‘The mainland,’ she said, choosing a dinghy and starting to prep it to sail. ‘There’s a little seaside village, Cala del Mar, just across the way. It has the best tapas outside of Barcelona. Also, wine.’

‘Then let’s go,’ Jude said, stepping aboard.

He let her get a little way away from the island before he started asking questions, which she appreciated.

‘So, you and Anna. Any more you wanted to tell me about that?’

‘Not really.’ Mostly all she wanted to do was get away from the island for a while. Even a few days there had left her feeling claustrophobic, in a way living in a tent in a war zone or an unexplored rainforest never did.

‘Because I realised something. If it’s been three years since you last spoke to her, that must have been around the same time I last saw you.’

He was fishing. Suddenly Rosa regretted bringing Jude along. Sh

e’d hoped they were done talking about their past relationship, now she’d given him the closure he’d asked for, but apparently he wanted more.

‘It was at my grandfather’s funeral, actually.’ The mention of death usually shut people up.

Not Jude. ‘A difficult, emotional time for you, then.’

Sighing, Rosa turned to face him. He lounged, pale and beautiful, against the back of the boat. His sharp cheekbones and brooding eyes that looked so perfect on album covers looked oddly out of place here on the water, as if he were a being from another world.

In a way, he was, she supposed. The world of celebrity, a million miles away from La Isla Marina, before this week. Now it looked as if it was going to be packed with them.

Hopefully none of the others would be so interested in her past.

‘Look, why don’t you just ask whatever it is you want to know?’ Rip the plaster off and get it over with, that was her way of dealing with difficult things. Anna, as always, disagreed, most of the time.

‘I just thought you might like to talk about it,’ Jude said, mildly. ‘I mean, whatever that last conversation was, it was clearly a corker.’

It had been. Fireworks and hateful words and dramatics all together. The culmination of seven years of frustration and lack of understanding. Of Anna never listening to Rosa’s feelings, Anna always knowing best and Rosa always screwing up.

Rosa sank down to sit on the little bench at the front of the boat, where she could keep steering, but slowed them to an almost stop so they just bobbed in the water. She needed her full attention for this conversation.

Maybe it would help to talk about it. If she could explain her side of the story, and have someone understand, maybe she’d stop feeling so damn guilty about it.

‘Like I said, Anna and I had both come to the island for our abuelo’s funeral. Anna was fretting about leaving Dad home alone, which was ridiculous, because he’s a grown, intelligent man who should be able to take care of himself.’