“Oh...yes,” Carla said, hoping Fidele wouldn’t hear the mix of surprise, disappointment and regret in her voice. “Of course, I remember Eve.”

She gazed all around her at the lights in the trees swaying in a warm breeze, and the tablecloth fluttering, and the warm smile lighting up Fidele’s face as he looked at his wife. She returned Eve’s grin even though she felt a lump growing in her throat and she tried to look pleased to see her, struggling to cover up the envy that was rippling inside her. Because Eve had stayed in Sardinia to carve out a life and family for herself with Fidele.

And Carla hadn’t.

Twenty-Three

Photos

Eve’s smile was wide and welcoming, crinkles radiating from her eyes. Her curls were tamed with a green bandanna, and her limbs were bronzed in her white shorts and Guns N’ Roses T-shirt. “Oh, my days, Carla,” she exclaimed, moving in for a hug. “I can’t believe you’re here. I was so excited when Fidele said you’d been in touch. It’s so great to see you. The boys and I have been out buying food at the market this afternoon and our meal is almost ready. Do you remember how you showed me how to dive, all those years ago? You were so lovely and kind, beautiful inside and out. You haven’t changed one bit.”

Although Carla was motionless, her body felt like she was moving, as if she was standing on a boat. An alternative life flashed before her eyes, one where she’d stayed in Sardinia with Fidele.

After leaving the island and her gap year behind, Carla had felt aimless when she’d arrived back in England, eventually entering a marriage that had hit the rocks. After her and Aaron’s divorce, she’d been so focused on setting up her business, on maintaining her composure and on ensuring other people found the right partner, she had quite forgotten that romantic, adventurous Carla ever existed.

In their Mediterranean paradise, Fidele and Eve had embraced a beautiful, simple life together, and it seemed to have worked out wonderfully.

“It’s so great to see you, too,” Carla said, her lips wobbling a little. She patted her hands to her sides. “So, you guys got together and married, then?”

Eve flung an arm around Fidele’s neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Yup. We took a leap of faith, and just look at us now.”

Fidele beamed back at her.

“That’s great.” Carla forced a smile, though her sense of loss was sharp. She mentally struck The King of Cups from the tarot deck, before the night had even started. Fidele seemed unlikely to be the significant man supposed to be waiting for her.

The three of them sat down and continued chatting until Fidele and Eve’s sons appeared in a line. They each said hello and introduced themselves.

“What have you cooked for us, boys?” Eve asked. She added under her breath to Carla, “I am teaching them to look after themselves, so I don’t have to do everything around here. I said they didn’t have to eat with us tonight, to give us adults a chance to talk.”

The boys served zuppa Gallurese, a cross between a lasagna and a casserole, made with layers of rustic bread, cheese, herbs and meat broth. This was followed by seadas, crisp, deep-fried pastries filled with lemony fresh cheese and soaked in warm honey.

Eve and Carla swapped stories about their gap years, comparing which countries they’d loved the most and discussing some of their favorite sights. “Do you feel you ever missed out by staying in one place?” Eve asked her husband.

“Never.” Fidele shook his head. “If you are happy at home, why look anywhere else? Real happiness comes from here.” He made a heart shape with his hands against his chest.

“You have obviously never lived in rainy old England, where the view is of the terraced house opposite and the dogs in the yard.” Eve laughed, her eyes encouraging Carla to join in. “Sometimes, when you are younger, you don’t know who you are yet, or where you belong in the world, and you have to travel to find yourself. If I hadn’t traveled to Sardinia, you and I wouldn’t have met.”

Eve and Fidele looked into each other’s eyes, and candlelight danced on their faces.

Carla curled her fingers, feeling like she was intruding. “How did you two get together?” she asked, curious how long it had taken Fidele to find love again after she’d left.

“It happened a few months after you went home,” Eve answered tactfully. “I dated a couple of other guys while I was here, but things didn’t work out.”

Fidele nodded in agreement.

“I went on one date with this drunken guy who was hassling me to go back to his place when Fidele showed up and rescued me, like a fairy-tale prince or something.”

Carla’s smile felt tight, and she wondered if her hosts would be lovey-dovey all night.

When she’d first started dating again after her divorce, it hadn’t been a positive experience. One of her dates had accidentally left his wallet at home so she had to pay for his meal, drinks and taxi, and another asked if he could sleep on Carla’s sofa because his wife had kicked him out. One brought his mother along because she liked to vet his potential girlfriends.

Carla had attended a speed-dating session where the selection of potential suitors had been far too old, too young, too brash, too timid or preened like pedigreed cats. She’d met one of them afterward for a proper date and he’d taken her to an Argentinian-style steak restaurant, even though she’d been vegetarian at the time. In comparison, her subsequent dates with Tom had almost been perfect.

All this talk about Eve and Fidele’s big love affair made her mouth feel dry. “I’ve brought some photographs with me,” she said to change the subject. “I kept a travel journal during my travels and thought you might like to see them.”

“Wicked.” Eve’s eyebrows lifted. “Yes, please.”

Carla opened the book, realizing there were more photos of her and Fidele than she’d originally thought.

Eve didn’t seem to mind. “Hah, look at your amazing hair,” she said to her husband. “It was so luscious.”

He swept a hand across his head. “I might grow it back.”

Eve reached out to stroke it, too. “I don’t think that’s gonna work, babe.” They leaned across the table and kissed.

Carla’s jaw began to ache.

She pointed to a photo of a group standing outside Fidele’s diving center. Eve stood to the far left of the shot wearing a red bandanna and not looking very different at all.

“A real trip down memory lane.” Eve sighed contentedly after browsing through them all. “I’ve been sorting out some old photos, too. When Fidele mentioned you’d been in touch, I dug them out. I think we should design a page for our website showing the history of the diving center and use some of the shots.”

“I love this idea,” Fidele said.

“Mwah.” Eve blew him a kiss and disappeared inside to fetch the pictures.

“I thought meeting Eve again would be a nice surprise for you.” Fidele grinned, topping up Carla’s glass with water. “I knew you would enjoy catching up together.”

Carla smiled and nodded. The truth was, she remembered Eve used to have a reputation for being a party girl, known for hopping in and out of bars and beds. Not that it mattered now. Eve had gotten her man, and she and Fidele seemed extremely happy. And besides, Carla wasn’t jealous about their relationship at all. Not one little bit.

Eve returned and placed three paper envelopes on the table with dates written on the front. “Remember when it took days to develop photos?” She laughed, opening the first pack and then leafing through them. “Happy days. I’m looking for any of you, Carla. I think I may have several of our diving adventures.” She turned the shots this way and that, passing the images across to Carla to take a look.

It was strange seeing shots of herself she hadn’t seen before, laughing and drinking beer on board a boat. Carla remembered she’d joined a group of others on a sailing day trip. “Where was this taken?” she asked. “Where did we go to?”

Eve peered across the table. “We sailed across to Corsica for the day and stopped for a picnic and a swim. Do you remember we went to the caves of Bonifacio and were supposed to visit the castle? Instead, we all found a cute terrace bar overlooking the harbor and stayed there drinking all afternoon.”

“Oh, yes.” Carla only semirecalled this. She recognized some of her fellow travelers but not others. She looked at her own sun-kissed cheeks and her unlined skin and she wanted to say to herself, Don’t go home, Carla. Not just yet. Stay and see where things lead with Fidele.

“Here’s one of you and me. Just look at us, we’re so young,” Eve gushed, sliding across another photo.

It had been taken as a portrait format shot, with Carla and Eve occupying the bottom half of the image. They pressed their cheeks together and laughed as they clinked beer bottles. Above them, photobombing the shot, was a young blond guy who wore a T-shirt with the name of the bar on the front. He wore a napkin over one shoulder and held up two fingers behind Carla’s head, to make bunny ears.

Carla’s smile froze. It then fell away from her lips completely, and her blood cooled in her veins. She knew this man but hadn’t realized she must have randomly encountered him while day tripping in Corsica twenty-one years ago. Her fingers stiffened as she gripped the photo and she tried to avert her gaze, but she couldn’t stop looking at him.

Then, out of the blue, an unwanted thought hit her like a freak wave.

Oh god, he couldn’t possibly be the man represented by The Lovers card, could he? She felt the blood drain from her face.

“Are you okay?” Eve asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”