“You know what. It won’t benefit you or me, and it definitely won’t benefit him. Not when we have to fuck off out of here in a few days’ time and go back to normal.”
Normal.
I’ve already lost track of whatnormalfeels like, because this, right here, THIS is what feels normal now.
“Ella,” Josh whispers, knowing my thoughts as well as he knows my words. “Stop it. Seriously.”
I shrug. “Fine. Ok.”
“Good.”
He smiles, but his smile is as fake as Heath’s was when we were first in the jeep earlier. He’s talking sense, but he’s also talking bullshit. He doesn’t want to go back tonormalany more than I do.
“Guys!”Mr Christoffcalls, and we look over at the client who is driving us crazy. “Come, join me. Time for wine tasting.”
“Can’t wait!” I clap my hands. “I’m dying to see what these grapes taste like!”
I’m not lying, either. A glug of wine is exactly what I’m needing right now.
I bounce on over, with a massive smile on my face – but this time I heed Josh’s words, and I don’t get too close. I don’t take Heath’s hand.
Fair play, the wines do taste a lot different when you try them one after the other. I get the hang of sniffing them, too. I’m still debating my favourites when we arrive at the wine store at the end of the tour, so Heath makes a Heath move and takes a load of all three of them, and a whole batch of Josh’s favourite, too.
We’re not going to be running out of wine anytime soon, that’s for certain. And it hits me in the guts there and then.
We won’t be running out of wine anytime soon regardless of this new massive selection, because in just a few days it’ll be a cab driving us out of Cannes, to the airport – not driving us from a vineyard back to his place.
“Time for home,” Heath says as we wait for the cab back to his villa, and his words give me one of those damn lurches. I shift from foot to foot.
Home.
It’s sure beginning to feel like it.
Cliché and fucked up and forbidden or not – home is where the heart is.
And my heart is here. With Heath and Josh.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
THURSDAY
I hope you enjoyed your wine tasting session today. So many glorious flavours to choose from – fragrant and distinguished.
Time to turn that on its head.
Tonight will be a tasting of an entirely different variety – other than the shade of the liquids we’ll be using.
Watersports!
We’ll be glugging the piss as readily as we glug the wine. I want to see the enjoyment on your faces as you taste the nectar straight from the source. No grapes required for the brewing.
Served warm, not cold.
There is a ‘bottle’ I’d like to fill, though – and you can help me with that, Josh.
Get prepared for things to get very wet, very slippery, and very very fucking dirty.
Lots of drinking beforehand, as always. We want to make sure the ‘wine’ keeps on flowing.
