Rewinding her brain to a point before the grill party hadn’t worked at all. The scenes from her two evenings with Joe were flaring up now, one after the other, having a choking effect. The fury she had felt last night had given way to something much more complex. There was still burning anger, but i
During their trip up the mountain D had overcome the dazed state she had been in during breakfast. The walk on the mountain had felt good. And with everyone around her laughing and joking, her mind had cleared and she had sometimes even found herself laughing along. All in all, she had managed rela
They had been like this for three tense minutes now, D sitting on her bed, flipping through the magazine and Sarah stretched out on the other bed, her eyes closed. No one had said a word. Sarah was caught in a fierce internal struggle. On one side there was Joe’s orders for her not to talk to D ab
“Yeah, what was I thinking, right?” she finally said, and there was a real bitterness in her voice. “I must have totally lost my mind there! The stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I agree….” “That’s not what I meant,” Sarah said with some exasperation. “I was just surprised, because I really thought y
She must have nodded off after D had left. When there was a knock on the door, it took Sarah a moment to wake up. Still drowsy, she rose from the bed and stumbled over to the door. D must have forgotten her key. She opened the door – and found herself looking right into her brothers’ eyes. “Joe?
Not paying much attention to any of that, Joe left the sun-flooded lounge area through the sliding glass doors. Outside, he walked between the many lawn chairs and towels that were spread out on the grass. People were dozing; getting a sunburn; playing cards; chatting; cuddling… He took the stairs
Swimming with strong, regular strokes, D slowly ploughed through the water, glad that she had made it away from the area with the boats and all the other swimmers and the screaming kids. She had almost reached the tip of the peninsula with the flagpole that she had seen on her way through the spa a
The sudden creaking of wooden planks and the whole pier starting to slightly swing under somebody’s footsteps made her click her jaws in irritation. It was really annoying how, the very minute she had started to relax a bit here, some stupid swimmer or walker or fisherman or whatever had to jump ou