Milo's eyebrows rose. 'You made a wish, didn't you? You made a wish and it's come true, hasn't it?' His bright smile was both mocking and delighted.

'I told you I don't believe in wishes,' Alice said.

'Is Aphrodite the reason you came back to the villa?'

Alice turned to look at him. 'It might have been one of the reasons.'

He held her gaze for a moment and then he spoke. 'I'm glad you came back,' he said.

When Alice arrived back at the villa, there was no sign of Stella other than a mess of dishes in the sink. Alice peered into it and saw two cereal bar wrappers and four cups and spoons which had obviously been Stella's coffee quota so far that day.

'Stella?' Alice shouted up the stairs but there was no reply so she went to her bedroom and took a quick shower. It had been an amazing day. She had stayed on the beach with Milo for hours just sitting and chatting and swimming and what was even better she was going to see him again.

The ride back to Kethos Town in the afternoon had been like a dream from which Alice hadn't wanted to wake up. She kept trying to think of ways to delay their parting but he said he had to get back.

'I wish this day could last forever,' he said, 'and I'm sorry that it can't.'

She didn't ask him what he had to get back for and she'd waited for him to say if he wanted to see her again. Well, she'd waited about two seconds.

'Will I see you again?' she'd blurted before having a chance to check the rules of etiquette.

'Come to the villa tomorrow. My boss is away. I have to work but' he'd paused, 'we can talk, yes?'

'Yes,' Alice had said with a smile of relief and delight.

Now, as she walked down the stairs after her shower, she couldn't help smiling at the thought of seeing Milo again. She couldn't remember talking to a man with such ease before but, with Milo, the hours had passed by so quickly and happily and the day had ended all too suddenly.

'Oh! There you are!' Stella's voice broke into Alice's thoughts and there, standing in the kitchen with her fifth cup of coffee of the day, was her sister.

'Hello,' Alice said. 'Where have you been?'

'Just out,' Stella said mysteriously, draining her cup and flinging it in the sink to join the others.

'Into town?' Alice probed.

Stella's lips twisted and then she nodded. 'I got so bored here that I thought I'd try and find you so I ended up going to the museum you said you were visiting but you weren't there and then I got stuck with this local man who insisted on showing me every single coin and piece of pottery that has ever been dug up on the whole of Kethos!'

'Oh, poor Stella!' Alice said in sympathy even though she was laughing inside.

'It was awful. Where were you?'

Alice swallowed. She hated telling lies but she couldn't risk Stella finding out about Milo.

'I just wandered around really,' she said with a shrug, turning her back on her sister and opening the fridge to pour herself some fruit juice.

'Wandered around where?'

'Well, I ended up getting a bus and I found this little beach. I spent most of the day there,' she said, happy that some of what she'd said was the truth.

'Maybe you can show me this beach,' Stella said.

'Oh, I don't think you'd like it,' Alice said.

'Why wouldn't I like it?'

'It's very stony and the sea's so cold,' Alice said without so much as a twinge at her lie. She was becoming bolder because the thought of not seeing Milo again was too much.

'God, it's so boring here, isn't it?' Stella said, walking through to the living room and flopping down heavily on one of the white sofas.

'I thought you were happy by the pool all day?'

'Only to begin with.'

'Haven't you brought books with you?'

'Oh, I hate books!'

Alice sighed. 'Well, maybe we can find something to do together,' she said at last.

'Really?' Stella said, looking at her sister with hope in her eyes. 'Tomorrow? Can we do something tomorrow?'

'What about the day after?' Alice said.

'But I want to do something tomorrow!' she said. 'I can't bear another day in this place. I really can't stand it and you did say we could do something.'

'Yes but just not tomorrow,' Alice said.

'Why not? What have you got planned?'

'I haven't got anything pla-'

'What are you hiding from me, Alice?'

'I'm not hiding-'

'And you did say we could do something together!'

'ALL RIGHT!' Alice shouted. 'We'll do something.'

'Tomorrow!'

'Yes,' Alice relented, 'we'll do something tomorrow.'

Chapter 13.

Milo hadn't wanted to say goodbye to Alice so early in the day. It was frustrating that they couldn't spend the evening together. He could have taken her to his favourite restaurant and they could have talked whilst watching the sun go down. That's what any normal guy would have done, he thought, but he wasn't a normal guy, was he? He had responsibilities. He had a little sister.

He'd picked Tiana up from Hanna's at the usual time and they'd gone straight home for tea together.

'Did you have a nice day off?' Tiana asked him when they were sitting at the kitchen table together.

'I did,' he said. And then she'd started. She seemed to know that it hadn't been an ordinary day off because she wouldn't relent with the questions.

'But you must have done something interesting because you took the picnic blanket and you never take that unless you're going somewhere really nice.'

Milo turned to where Tiana was looking. It was the little wicker chair by the door on which the picnic blanket lived. Of course, it wasn't there because it was in the back of Milo's bike.

'You would make a good detective,' Milo told her and she beamed a smile at him.

'I know. You can't hide anything from me. I always know exactly what you're doing.'

'But I'm not trying to hide anything from you,' he said with what he hoped was a deflecting smile.

'So where did you go?' she asked.

He sighed. The deflecting smile hadn't worked. 'Just to the beach.'

'Your favourite beach?' Her bright eyes were wide and inquisitive.

'Yes.'

'On your own?'

Milo clattered his cutlery onto his plate. 'What is it with all these questions?'

'I just want to know so I can picture it,' Tiana said innocently.

Milo pushed his chair out behind him and started clearing away the debris of dinner whilst buying himself some time. It was one of the problems he faced as a single man in sole charge of a little sister what did he do with his girlfriends? Did he tell them from the outset? He'd tried that before and it hadn't worked out. He remembered one woman had just laughed at him when he'd brought his phone out and shown her a photo of Tiana.

Then there was the problem of what to do with a girlfriend if things did get serious. It wouldn't be right to bring them home because his home was Tiana's too and he couldn't very well have a normal healthy relationship without inviting them back to his. There were only so many times you could put such a thing off. And what about the long-term implications? How many women would really want a man who came joined at the hip with a little girl?

His eldest brother, Georgio, was all too aware of Milo's predicament and had been quizzing him about it for years but Milo didn't want to think about that now. He turned to face his little sister. She was still staring at him with those huge eyes of hers. Milo thought of them as truth detectors because he was never able to lie when she looked at him.

'I didn't go to the beach on my own,' he said.

Tiana smiled at him. 'Who did you go with?'

'Her name's Alice.'

'That's a pretty name.'

'For a pretty girl,' he said and then wondered if he should have volunteered such information.

'Is she a tourist?'

He nodded. 'She's from England.'

'So she'll be going home soon?'

'Yes,' Milo said, and the sudden realisation of that made him sad. Whatever had happened today and whatever was going to happen next, it was only going to last one short week and then she would leave his little island and go home.

'Will I get to meet her or will she be like all your other girlfriends?'

'What do you mean?' Milo asked, surprised by her question.

'I never get to meet any of them,' Tiana said with a definite sulk in her voice.

'I didn't know you wanted to meet them.'

'Of course I want to meet them. I want to know if they're right for you,' she said and her face was perfectly serious.

'Right for me?' Milo frowned.

She nodded as she cleared her plate and drank down the last of her juice. 'You keep them all hidden away and I never get to meet them.'

Milo scratched his head. This had never come up before. He'd always tried to keep his love life separate from his home life with Tiana because that had seemed the right thing to do but he was now being chastised for doing so.

'Look,' he said, 'I can't bring my girlfriends home all the time.'

'Why not?'

'Well, because some of them don't last long enough.' He grimaced. That hadn't come out right.

'But I'd still like to meet them.'

'Why?'

'Because I don't get to meet grown-up girls,' she said and Milo felt a pang inside his heart at her words. She missed her mother, didn't she? She was crying out for a replacement but wasn't that enough of a reason not to bring his girlfriends home? Just imagine telling them at the end of a romantic dinner that they now had to be vetted by his little sister. That wasn't exactly the stuff of romance, was it?

'You should have taken me with you today,' Tiana said, pouting.

'But you had to go to school.'

'Oh, I hate school,' she declared.

'No, you don't.'

'Well, take me on your next date with Alice.'

'How do you know there'll be a second one?' he said.