“Look who’s here, Brigitte,” called Isabella, and the tawny brunette squealed in delight. She jumped up from her sunbed, her small, pert breasts jiggling in their bikini top. As she came over, she threw her arms around Daniel, pressing her breasts against his shirt. Cherry stiffened, taking an instant dislike to her.
“It’s so good to see you. We missed you at Courchevel this year. Where were you?”
“Studying,” said Daniel briskly, “as I was the year before that, and the one before that.” He took Cherry’s hand. “This is Cherry.”
Cherry found herself moving in closer to Daniel and clutching his arm.
“Hi,” said Brigitte, noting her move. “You don’t have to worry about me, we’re like brother and sister.”
Cherry smiled tightly, feeling awkward.
“Hello, Auntie Laura!” Brigitte called, and waved. “This is Nicole,” she said, gesturing toward the long-limbed girl still on the lounger, who Cherry noticed had been watching the introductions.
Nicole slowly got up from the sunbed and made her way over at a speed that meant everyone had to watch and wait for her arrival. She kissed Cherry coolly on the cheek, but her greeting was far more friendly for Daniel. “It eez very nice to meet you,” she said with a lingering smile.
Is she flirting?Cherry glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed, but Isabella was talking to a middle-aged French woman, some sort of cook it seemed, and Laura was carrying a tray of drinks from inside. Brigitte had gone back to her sunbed and was artfully arranging her body to catch the falling rays of the evening sun.
“Drink?” called Laura, and Cherry took a beer from the tray. She followed Daniel to where the empty loungers lay by the pool and sat uneasily, watching Nicole’s look of satisfaction as Daniel took the lounger next to her. Laura and Isabella were at a table farther up the garden and were busily engrossed in what looked like gossipy conversation. Cherry looked down at her dress, suddenly seeing a loose thread trailing across her knee. She was too embarrassed to pull it, in case Brigitte and Nicole noticed.
“So, how’ve you been?” Daniel asked Brigitte. “Found a job yet?”
Brigitte raised her sunglasses off her eyes and smiled. “Cheeky.” Then she immediately slid them back down again and leaned back in the chair, tilting her face to the early-evening rays. They lit her skin and tawny hair to a golden color.
“And you, Daniel?” Nicole’s accent was grating on Cherry’s nerves. “What eez it you do?”
“I’m a trainee doctor.”
“A doctor!” She gazed at him admiringly and Cherry seethed. Did she have to be so blatant? How did she not feel self-conscious in her bikini, meeting a man she’d never seen before? Is that what money did? Give you an air of unbridled confidence? Cherry decided she didn’t like either of them, but knew she should pretend she did. At least, in front of Isabella and Laura.
Daniel was still waiting for an answer from Brigitte. “Well, have you?”
“Just because some of us wanted to travel, expand our minds, and see the world before we got saddled with a grueling schedule. . .”
“You went on ski trips and summer yachts. In fact, are you sure you even left Europe?”
“Malta.”
“In Europe.”
Cherry wondered if Brigitte was joking, but, no, she’d lifted her sunglasses and was looking at him in puzzlement.
“Is it? Oh, well, geography never was my strong point. Lucky I’m not planning on being a global reporter or anything. I’d get totally lost.”
“You’d just need to know which plane to catch.”
She sat up. “Really?”
“No.”
“I know you think I’m useless,” she said, smiling as if “useless” was an admirable trait. “But actually . . . I am getting a job. One much closer to home.”
“You are? Really joining the work force?”
“I’m waiting for Uncle Vic to find me an opening in publishing. A family friend,” she explained to Cherry.
“So nothing concrete yet,” said Daniel.
“You’re wrong,” she said triumphantly. “He’s pretty certain there’ll be something in September.”
