“This place smells funny,” said Harriet as she sniffed here and there. “One might even say it stinks.”

  “It does stink,” Brutus agreed. “It stinks to the dozens of pets who have gone before us, and the hundreds of humans who have spent their vacations here.”

  It was true that the bed probably had been slept in by all of Marge and Tex’s predecessors, which made Harriet wince. And when she had walked out onto the little balcony earlier she could distinctly sense the lingering presence of all the pets who had liberally shed parts of their person on the wood tile floor. She could even see bits of hair and who knows what else jammed in the crevices. Yuck!

  “I’m not so sure this was a good idea,” she intimated.

  “No, me neither,” Brutus admitted.

  The balcony had been locked down tight when Marge and Tex had left for the beach, making sure no burglars or other persons with felonious designs could attempt to break in and steal stuff. And so they were forced to remain in the tiny apartment, where Tex had turned on the AC in order to keep temperatures within reason and preventing the two cats from being boiled alive in the French heat.

  “We should never have said yes when Marge suggested we join them on this trip,” said Harriet as she placed her head on her front paws. She and Brutus were ensconced on the couch, impatiently awaiting the return of their humans.

  “It’s chilly in here,” said Brutus. “Isn’t it chilly in here?”

  “It is chilly,” Harriet confirmed. Though she preferred chilly to the heat they had been subjected to upon their arrival. Who knew France could be so hot. It felt more like a tropical heat than a moderate European one.

  “I wonder what Max and Dooley are up to right now,” she said with a touch of wistfulness in her voice. She wouldn’t admit it for the world, but she had actually missed their friends. Life in Hampton Cove simply hadn’t been the same without them. Even Brutus missed the twosome, she could tell.

  “You know what we should do?” said Brutus. “We should get out of this place and meet some of the locals. I’m sure they’ll be able to tell us about the fun stuff that goes on down here. Show us the ins and outs of the place, you know.”

  “I don’t know, Brutus,” said Harriet. When Marge had suggested the trip, she had readily agreed, dreaming about launching a local chapter of cat choir, with her in charge, of course. But now that they were actually in situ she was starting to have her doubts about the feasibility of her plan. Did French cats even like singing? What did they do in their spare time? Did they smoke cigarettes like their humans, and drive their cars like maniacs? Or did they simply lounge about and eat croissants and drink espresso?

  She just wished Marge and Tex hadn’t locked them up in this horrible place. She was starting to feel seriously claustrophobic!

  That night a midnight swim had been organized, as was customary whenever the Griffiths descended upon Saint-Tropez. Harry was there, and so were Eric, Chloe and Kim. Emily had opted to take a rain check, as she had too much on her mind already. Harry, who had wanted to stay with his fiancée, had been prompted by Eric and Chloe to join them. As it was, this might be the last time he was joining his friends as a bachelor, and Eric had argued he needed to make the most of the time he had left as a ‘free man.’

  The beach they had selected for their swim was a little secluded, but could still be reached from the Audrey, and was only a short swim away from the boat. In fact Harry could see the lights of the Audrey, which somehow always gave him a feeling of security. If anything happened to them, they could quickly return to safety.

  Not that anything would happen. The sea was smooth and there were almost no waves to speak of. And he had checked a website where jellyfish sightings were reported, and there were none for their area so the coast was clear for a pleasant nocturnal swim.

  He still wasn’t feeling entirely at ease. Not like in previous years, when he had enjoyed being with his friends. The recent events with Emily had put a serious damper on his carefree enjoyment. That afternoon things had come to a head with the outrageous behavior of Brian Johnson. The man had had the audacity to crawl into Emily’s bed and make goo-goo eyes at her! Only to be discovered by his wife, of course. And then there were those papers of his dad’s that had mysteriously found their way into Emily’s cabin.

  Harry had personally engaged in some measure of damage control by having a long talk with Heather, and assuring his mother’s best friend, who he had called Auntie Heather for as long as he could remember, that Emily had no designs whatsoever on Uncle Brian. Eventually Heather had calmed down, and had believed him when he said that it was Uncle Brian’s own foolhardy initiative, borne no doubt from a misreading of signals, since Emily had done nothing to make him believe she had any interest in the man.

  As far as his dad’s papers was concerned, that was a different matter altogether. Someone must have planted those, and Emily seemed convinced that Matthew was the guilty party. But why would Matthew try to frame Emily and make her look bad in the eyes of his employer? It made no sense at all. All he knew was that the frequency and severity of these strange events was accelerating, and his heart bled for Emily, who didn’t deserve any of this. In fact he had a good mind to send her home—for her own protection.

  “A penny for your thoughts?” said Eric, who was sitting next to him on the beach, and glancing out across the dark sea, where Chloe and Kim were enjoying a swim. He could hear them gibbering and laughing all the way to the beach, which wasn’t hard since sounds carry a lot further across the water.

  “Oh, just more trouble with my dad,” he said. He didn’t want to involve his friends in these events. And besides, as far as he was concerned Eric was still in the doghouse after his ill-fated remarks about Emily that morning. The words ‘rushing in’ and ‘are you sure she’s the one for you’ still rang in his ears loud and clear and he hadn’t fully forgiven his longtime friend for these sentiments.

  “Emily?” said Eric, and Harry nodded. Eric hesitated, then said, “I didn’t want to show these to you, Harry. But I feel like you should probably know what your fiancée has been up to.”

  He looked up sharply. “What are you talking about?”

  “Here,” said Eric, and handed him his phone. “She sent me these messages this afternoon.”

  “What messages? What are you talking about?” he said as he took Eric’s phone. He found himself staring at several messages from Emily.

  I think you’re really hot, Eric.

  It was the most innocent one amongst the bunch.

  Do you want to come to my cabin tonight?

  was another one, along with

  I’ll make sure Harry doesn’t find out.

  He blinked as he stared at the messages. “What is this?” he demanded.

  “You tell me. She sent these to me from her phone. I didn’t even know she was into me or anything. And now this.”

  Suddenly Harry remembered how Emily had told him she had lost her phone. She had found it again in her cabin, even though she could have sworn she had taken it to Saint-Tropez that day. Could it be that someone had taken it and had sent these messages?

  “These are fake,” he said immediately. “Someone else must have sent them.”

  “They come from the same number she texted me from before,” said Eric. “Here. Let me show you.”

  “You don’t need to show me,” he said a little brusquely. “I know they’re fake. Emily would never send these.”

  “Are you sure? It just seems to me you don’t really know her as well as you think you do.”

  “I know her very well,” he snapped annoyedly. “And I’m telling you she wouldn’t do this.”

  “If you say so,” said Eric softly as he took his phone back. For a moment neither of the two friends spoke, then Eric said, “There’s something else I need to tell you, Harry.”

  Harry groaned. “What?”

  “I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time, only I never seem to find the right moment.”

  “What is it?” said Harry, growing impatient. Probably more gossip about Emily. Why did his friends seem to hate her so much? It was simply beyond him that they couldn’t see how wonderful she was.

  “Me and Chloe, we’ve been having… issues,” Eric said haltingly.

  “What issues?” he asked. Even though he was upset with his friend, hearing these words still filled him with concern. Eric and Chloe had been a couple for a long time, and the fact that they were having issues was the last thing he wanted to hear right now.

  “Please don’t tell her I said this, but…” Eric took a deep breath. “I’ve recently discovered—well, maybe not exactly recently, but…”

  “But what? What have you discovered?” Was Chloe being unfaithful to Eric? It wouldn’t surprise him. Chloe was a butterfly, and was the type of girl who liked to flit from flower to flower. Eventually she always returned to Eric, but there had been infidelities, even though he didn’t think Eric knew about them.

  Eric took another deep breath, and seemed to have to dig deep to find the courage to keep on talking. “I like… boys, Harry,” he said finally. “I always thought I liked girls, but I’m more and more convinced that I actually like boys a lot more than I like girls.”

  Harry slowly turned his head to take in his friend. Eric was staring into the middle distance, and refused to meet his eyes. “What?” he said finally, as he couldn’t believe his ears. “You mean you’re gay?”

  Eric nodded and stared at his feet. “I am,” he said simply.

  “But… do you… I mean, are you sure?”

  “I’m sure,” said Eric, and now he did look up. There was a wistful smile on his face. “The thing is that there’s been a special someone in my life for a while, Harry. And this special someone has made me realize that what I feel for him isn’t mere friendship but love. I haven’t told Chloe, and I don’t know if I should.”

  “Of course you should. If you don’t love her, you should tell her. Who is this special someone? Do I know him?”

  Eric nodded slowly. “It’s… well, it’s you, Harry.”

  Harry was taken aback by this. “You mean…”

  “Yes,” said Eric. “I’m in love with you, Harry. I’ve probably been in love with you always, but it took me a long time to recognize it.”

  “But… you do realize that I don’t feel the same way about you?”

  Eric grimaced and hung his head. “That sounds very definite.”

  Harry felt for his friend, but he couldn’t pretend to feel something he didn’t. He did understand now where Eric’s animosity against Emily came from. It was jealousy. So he placed an arm around his friend’s shoulder, and they both sat there for a while.

  But then Eric abruptly stood and walked away into the surf. A couple of powerful strokes of his arms later and he was on his way back to the boat.

  “Eric, where are you going!” Kim cried. And when Eric didn’t respond, she swam after him.

  Kim had almost reached Eric when he abruptly stopped and turned. They both bobbed up and down in the water.

  “What do you want?” asked Eric gruffly, and Kim was taken aback by the harsh tone of his voice.

  “Hey, what’s wrong?” she said, closing the distance between them. “Did you and Harry have another fight?” Eric’s silence spoke volumes, and Kim moved even closer. “It’s all right, Eric. It’s not your fault. It’s Emily’s fault.” The feelings she had long harbored for her brother’s best friend suddenly took full possession of her. He looked so gorgeous in the moonlight, his perfect features lit up by the pale light, and before she knew what she was doing, she had wrapped her arms around his neck and was kissing him.

  For a moment Eric didn’t respond, but then he suddenly yanked himself free. “What are you doing!” he yelled, and before she could stop him, he turned and was swimming away, too fast for her to follow.

  She watched him go, and swam after him at a slower pace, suddenly experiencing a powerful sensation of dread as she contemplated the consequences of her rash action.

  CHAPTER 27

  Chloe had emerged from the surf, after watching her boyfriend race off, followed by Kim. Strange things were going on, and she wasn’t sure if she liked it. She wrapped a towel around herself, and joined Harry on the beach.

  “Hey, you,” she said as she took a seat next to him.

  He muttered something under his breath that didn’t sound very encouraging, but she didn’t mind. Harry had a lot of things on his mind, she knew. And if it was up to her, soon he would have even more.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” she said, as she fished her phone out of her bag.

  “Not you, too,” he said with a groan.

  She laughed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. What did you want to tell me?”

  “This,” she said, and held up her phone.

  He glanced at the display and frowned. “Is that…”

  She nodded. “I found these on Eric’s phone. Looks like your girlfriend is cheating on you with my boyfriend.”

  Much to her surprise, Harry didn’t respond to this shocking piece of news.

  “Aren’t you going to say something? Emily is cheating on you, Harry, and this is the proof,” she said, waving her phone in his face.

  “It’s all nonsense,” he said annoyedly. “Someone took Emily’s phone this afternoon while we were in Saint-Tropez and sent those messages to Eric. It’s all more of the same, and probably the same person who’s been sending her these other messages.”

  “What other messages? What are you talking about?”

  “Never mind,” he said dismissively.

  “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you, Harry, but I’m worried. Worried about you and worried about Emily.”

  “Yeah, right,” he scoffed.

  “What?”

  “You are worried about Emily? Don’t you think I saw how you were making fun of her this afternoon when her ex-boyfriend suddenly showed up? You hate her, and you’ve hated her ever since I first introduced her to you, and don’t you deny it.”

  She felt taken aback by the sudden vehemence with which he spoke these words. “I wouldn’t say I hate her. But like I said, I’m worried about you. We’re all worried about you. Ever since you met Emily things haven’t been great with you, Harry. And now it turns out she’s sending these secret messages to Eric—”

  “I just told you she didn’t send those messages!”

  “Okay, all right! But then how do you explain that they ended up on Eric’s phone? And I checked: they were definitely sent from her phone.”

  “I told you. Someone took her phone and planted those messages.”

  “Yeah, right,” she said, but then saw that he was serious, so she sobered. “I still think there’s something not right about Emily. And I know you don’t like me pointing that out to you, but I feel like I have no choice. I’m your friend, Harry, and I love you, and I think Emily—”

  “Look, Eric and Emily can’t be having an affair, all right?”

  “And why not?” she demanded.

  “Because he’s gay!”

  Her jaw dropped at this. “What?!”

  He made an irritated gesture. “Forget I said that,” he grunted, and got up. As he made his way to the water, she trotted after him.

  “Why do you say Eric is gay? I know for a fact he isn’t. And I should know, since I’m his girlfriend.”

  “I said forget it,” he grumbled, as he waded into the surf.

  She hurried after him, and soon they were swimming in the still-warm water of the Mediterranean. She felt perturbed, and didn’t understand why Harry would say such a thing about Eric. But then she understood. He was angry with her for saying those things about Emily. For pointing out certain uncomfortable truths. So he was lashing out, and saying anything that he thought would hurt.

  She approached him and offered him a seductive smile. “You were joking, weren’t you, when you said that Eric is gay?”

  “Yeah, I was joking,” he said resignedly.

  “I knew it. If Eric is gay then so am I.”

  He gave her a weak smile. “You said it.”

  “I’m sorry for what I said about Emily.”

  “It’s fine. You’re just trying to do the right thing.”

  “Yes!” she said, happy that he finally understood. “We’re all watching out for you, Harry. Me, Eric, Kim. Because we love you. We all love you.”

  He smiled. “Thanks, Chloe. That’s very sweet of you to say.”

  “No, but it’s true,” she said a little huskily. He looked so handsome with his wet tresses draped across his brow. So very handsome. And his smile had always done something to her insides that she found hard to ignore. And as a wave suddenly came and swept her up, she found herself going under. She came up spluttering and coughing, and Harry immediately came to her rescue. And when he was holding her in his arms, and giving her a look of concern, their lips suddenly met, and then they were kissing.

  It was a blissful moment—the moment she had been waiting for all her life. She wrapped her arms around him, intending to deepen the kiss, but before she could, he had yanked himself away from her and was swimming off with powerful movements of his arms and legs.

  “Well, shoot,” she muttered as she watched him disappear into the night.

  Emily had been experiencing a strong sense of dread all evening. And so when Harry had announced his plans to go for a swim with his friends and sister, she had declined, but also begged him not to go. Somehow she had a feeling something terrible was about to happen.

  Harry had laughed it off, and assured her he was an excellent swimmer, and nothing could happen.

  That hadn’t stopped her from worrying about him, though. And so on and off all evening she had put the pair of binoculars that Harry had gifted her to her eyes to keep an eye on her fiancé.