Free Here Come the Boys by Milly Johnson Page A

convinced her sister would end up as either as a hit man or a wrestler.
    ‘Mum and Dad okay?’ asked Selina, tinkering with the silver cross she wore at her neck again.
    ‘Yep, doing well,’ nodded Angie. ‘Dad had a bit of a heart scare last year, but it was something and nothing.’
    Angie noticed that Selina was smiling and lost in a bubble of thought. She knew she was thinking about Angie’s parents. They had loved Selina. She had always been welcome in their house. They couldn’t believe what she’d done and even years later her mother was asking her if they’d made friends again and hoping they had.
    The gate number for their flight flashed up. Soon they were on the plane and fastened in. As they began to taxi to the runway, Selina grabbed Angie’s hand.
    ‘I’m really nervous about flying,’ she said. ‘That’s why we cruise.’
    By the time they were in the air, Angie’s hand was scarred with nail crescents.
    ‘Sorry,’ said Selina. ‘Haven’t flown for years. Actually take-off wasn’t as bad as I remember. I think I’ll have a gin and tonic when the trolley comes past though. Purely medicinal, of course.’
    Selina bought them a double each with cash. Five minutes after downing them, they were both asleep, as most of the passengers on the plane seemed to be. It only felt like minutes later when Angie was awoken by a bing-bong and an announcement alerting travellers to buckle up for descent.
    ‘We’re nearly in Barcelona,’ Angie nudged Selina awake. ‘There are stacks of shops in the airport so at least we won’t be bored.’
    There were loads and loads of fabulous stores in the airport, just as Angie said. And every one of them was shut. Only a couple of cafés were open. They picked the one with the comfiest seats and bought two croissants and coffees. They were both exhausted and it was a massive effort to keep their eyes open, even though caffeine was flooding their systems. Their flight into Dubrovnik left at six a.m and they had six hours to kill until then. Angie’s head fell forwards onto the table and she was asleep before the clunk. Selina curled into the corner of the sofa seat and closed her eyes. She dreamed of Benji and awoke at three a.m. with tears in her eyes. She didn’t get back to sleep again after that.
    When Angie woke up, Selina was nowhere to be seen. Then Angie spotted her buying something in the café. Selina returned to the table with two coffees and two chocolate-coated croissants on a tray.
    ‘I was just about to surprise you with breakfast,’ smiled Selina.
    ‘I’m sick of the sight of coffee,’ said Angie, then realised immediately how ungrateful that sounded, so she added, ‘but I think we need them to give us some energy. Thank you.’
    ‘Yeah, no worries.’
    ‘We’ll check-in after this,’ replied Angie, glancing at her watch. ‘Have you had any more emails?’
    Selina switched on her phone. She’d kept it turned off to save the battery.
    ‘Yep. There’s one from Marijuana…sorry, Marijana. She’s the port rep at Dubrovnik. We need to catch the three o’clock bus to Korčula then the rep there, Emerick, will meet us at the bus stop. She’s sent me her mobile number and his. I’ve hardly got any battery left at all so I better write them down.’ By the time she had fished a pen out of her bag, the phone screen had gone black.
    ‘Well, that’s that then,’ said Angie as they both looked transfixed at the dead mobile.
    ‘Trust in the system, that’s all we can do,’ said Selina. ‘Emerick is going to presume that we catch that bus so he will be there to meet us. Think positive.’
    ‘The ship calls in at Venice the day after Korčula. It would have been far easier to catch up with the ship there,’ Angie commented.
    Selina turned to her. ‘Do you really want to stay in my company any longer than you have to?’
    ‘Fair point,’ said Angie, taking her yellow passport out of her bag.
    ‘And you wouldn’t want to miss Korčula,