Too Glam to Give a Damn (The Greek Getaways Collection #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Sofia Barnes lay back on her sunbed and stretched her arms out wide, wide enough to hold hands with the two women on the beds either side of her.

The view of the infinity pool and the glittering blue sea beyond was breathtaking.

From behind her designer sunglasses Sofia watched a yacht with billowing white sails slowly make its way across the horizon.

To her left a whitewashed town rose up in the distance like an elaborate wedding cake, dotted around with the turquoise roofs of churches clinging to the hillside.

Sofia squeezed both the hands she held hard, very hard.

‘Wake up, you two. What a view! Can you believe we’ve made it? We’ve finally started out on our very own Greek odyssey. We get to explore three gorgeous islands together in all their glory. This is the life!’

‘Ow!’

The woman to her left, Maddie Stevens, sat up abruptly, knocking her pink crocheted sunhat to the floor, and rubbed her palm.

‘Sof, careful, that hurt.’

Charlotte Trent, lying on the other side of Sofia, just murmured and shimmied down the sunbed a little more, the toes of her long, curvaceous body, in its low-cut red costume, almost over the edge of the bed.

‘Yes, leave us alone, Sof. Let us sleep if we want. You forced us to have two Aperol Spritzes the second we arrived at the hotel, one after the other. We’re not twenty anymore. What did you think would happen? And what’s wrong with a little snooze anyway? We’ve been travelling most of the day.’

Sofia leapt up off the sunbed and stood in front of her friends, blocking their view. She pointed up at the castle that stood atop the white icing houses. She couldn’t keep still a moment longer.

‘Boring! We’re here to celebrate fifty years of knowing each other. Fifty years! How many friends can say that? We’ve got to make the most of our time together. We need to go into that town up there and check it out as soon as we can.’

Maddie reached over, picked up her hat from the sun-warmed tiles and plonked it back on her head, stuffing her flame-coloured hair underneath as best she could.

She’d made the hat herself and been stunned to learn that crocheted hats and even dresses were all the rage now.

There’d been plenty on sale at the hotel boutique, at ridiculous prices.

Perhaps she should change jobs, leave the care home and its lovely but demanding residents far behind, and go into fashion design. She stared up at her friend.

‘Calm down, Sof, for God’s sake. I’d forgotten for a moment what it’s like spending more than a couple of hours with you. You’re manic. You were like this at school, bloody exhausting.’

Sofia drew herself up to her full height of five foot two, tiny gold string bikini glinting in the sun.

‘Charming, both of you. Is this the thanks I get for single-handedly organising the whole trip? Three weeks of bliss, without either of you having to lift a finger?’

Maddie smiled at the woman who’d been part of her life for so long.

‘Yeah, sorry, Sof. It’s a fabulous idea, and you got us a such a great deal. I still can’t believe it’s costing so little. Especially when we’re staying in places like this. I know June’s not high season for Greece, but even so…’

Sofia clocked Charlotte’s frown at the comment, shook her head in her friend’s direction and put her finger to her lips.

Luckily, Maddie was applying yet more suncream to her pale skin and didn’t notice.

Eventually, Maddie settled back down on her sunbed, sequinned kaftan billowing around her, and sighed.

‘You can call me na?ve if you like, but I just thought I might have a few moments to relax occasionally. I’m quite keen to do some snoozing in the sun.’

Maddie glanced up at the town, the blinding sun reflecting off the white of the houses.

‘There’s no way I’m trekking up all those steps in this heat anyway, especially with my skin. I’d be a leathery old prune in minutes.’

Sofia tutted.

‘Less of the old. That’s a banned word on this holiday. Sixty is the new forty you know. We’re still in our prime.’

Maddie snorted.

‘Well, you may be… Not sure I am.’

‘Of course you are.’

Sofia sat at the foot of her friend’s sunbed and tickled her feet.

‘Get off!’

‘I know you’ve had a truly horrible time, Mads, the worst, but we’re here to help you. Tony wouldn’t want you to sit around moping for the rest of your life, would he? He was always so full of fun, the—’

‘Please don’t say life and soul of the party.’

Maddie’s voice was sharper than she’d intended.

She really didn’t want to hear any more tributes to her late husband, Saint Tony, as she called him in her head.

He’d selfishly upped and left her fifteen months ago.

One minute smiling his smile that pulled everyone in, the next breathing his last, laid out on the kitchen floor.

A massive heart attack, they said; nothing that could have been done, they said.

Her mind flooded with images of his handsome face, robbed of life.

He’d left her to cope alone, but there was more, so much more.

At the gathering to mark a year since his death, she’d lost her temper and messed up so badly she was now estranged from her son and her gorgeous little baby granddaughter.

The shame and guilt at her actions ambushed her at odd moments during the day and often woke her at night, stabbing the images of being told to get out of her son’s house into her brain over and over again.

She hadn’t even been able to tell the two women in front of her, her oldest and closest friends, what she’d done. They’d never look at her the same way again.

When she raised her head again, she caught the look of concern that passed between Sofia and Charlotte. She mustn’t spoil the mood. They all deserved a break. Sofia worked far too hard, and Charlotte was wound tight as a coil most of the time.

‘Let’s all go into town a bit later, when it’s cooled down. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishwomen going out in the midday sun.’

Charlotte coughed.

‘Er, I think it’s Englishmen…’

‘Whatever.’

Charlotte sat up under her fringed umbrella, almost hitting her head on its wicker roof, long blonde hair escaping from its messy ponytail.

‘Did you know that it was also Noel Coward who wrote that wonderful Patsy Cline song, ‘Mad About the Boy’? About an actual boy? Or hopefully a young man.’

It was an obvious attempt to change the subject away from Tony, but Maddie played along.

‘Yeah, of course. Everyone knows that.’

‘Did you really?’

‘No … but you always were the school swot.’

Maddie’s smile showed her comment was without malice.

‘Hmmm. Not sure what good it did me.’

‘How can you say that? You’ve got your art hanging in galleries around the world; you’ve got a nice house, lovely kids, loads of friends… And your husband’s still alive.’

She hadn’t meant to say those last whispered words out loud.

Two drinks and no food hadn’t helped. She mustn’t get bitter and twisted.

Since Tony died, it was like she’d lost whatever filter she had, and she’d never had much of one to begin with.

But it was hard to sit there and listen to her friend feeling sorry for herself.

Charlotte had no idea. Not that Maddie wanted her friend to know what it was like to live without her husband, but still.

‘Sorry. Just slipped out.’

Maddie was shocked to see Charlotte’s blue eyes glitter with unshed tears.

‘Things aren’t always what they seem, Mads.’

Charlotte took a deep breath and gulped back a sob.

She mustn’t break down. Not this early in the holiday.

Just the word husband was enough to set her off.

She couldn’t let what she’d seen that night overwhelm her yet again.

Just the thought of opening that door and seeing them together was enough to make her feel nauseous.

Doug had betrayed her big time, there was no doubt about that, but what was she going to do about it, that was the question?

She had three precious weeks to try to work out the answer.

Maddie reached out to stroke her friend’s arm. She’d rarely seen Charlotte get emotional at the drop of a hat. Cool, calm, collected Charlotte was usually the sensible one. The giver of advice, on everything from recipes to relationships.

The three of them hadn’t seen quite as much of each other as they usually did over the past year.

Although they lived in different parts of the country, their aim had always been to meet once a month in person.

But the aftermath of Tony’s death and Sofia’s ridiculous workload had meant more WhatsApp group calls than meeting up.

It wasn’t the same. She wasn’t going to feel guilty about it – she had more than enough guilt on her plate – but she had to admit she’d dropped the ball on both her friends’ lives recently.

There was obviously something big going on in Charlotte’s life that she didn’t know about.

‘You’re right, Char. Things are never what they seem, lovely.’

Maddie really did care deeply about both these women, but her ability to deal with other people’s problems had been severely weakened since Tony’s death. She had to get out of her own head. She wasn’t the only one with problems. Charlotte deserved her help too.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’

A screen came down over her friend’s eyes before she’d even replaced her sunglasses.

‘Not at the moment, but thanks.’

Sofia had moved her pink and white striped towel to sit in the full glare of the sun.

‘OK, whatever you two are talking about looks a bit heavy. That’s enough of that. That sounds like late night stuff, to be discussed at length when we’ve downed a few.’

Maddie mouthed ‘bossy cow’ at Charlotte, which at least raised a smile.

Sofia raised her hand.