“Is it your first trip to Scilly?”
“Yes,” she replied, her brain frantically trying to catch up with the conversation.
“You’re going to love it,” Trystan said. “Everyone who comes to Scilly falls in love with the place.”
She nodded dumbly as they slowed to show their tickets. As Noah handed her ticket to her, she noticed the destination was St Mary’s.
Trystan had saidScilly,which sounded quite like Sicily but was definitely an entirely different place. She’d heard of the Scilly Isles, and while she wasn’t exactly sure where they were, she was certain they weren’t in the vicinity of Italy.
Noah’s phone must have auto-corrected when he’d messaged her about it. Maybe she should mention she didn’t know where they were going.
“How long is the flight?” she asked when they joined the end of the queue for security.
“An hour,” Noah told her.
Hopefully her ceaseless nodding covered her confusion. “I’m just going to let Mel know we made it to the airport.” Discreetly, she put some distance between them as she went into her messages. Instead of messaging Mel, she went into her conversations with Noah and scrolled up to the message about Sicily. Except it didn’t say Sicily at all. He’d told her Scilly and she’d misread it. She flashed Noah a nervous smile before opening the browser on the phone to search for the Scilly Isles. Squinting, she scanned the Wikipedia page and the little map that showed the cluster of islands off Cornwall. Not quite Italy, then.
“Everything okay?” Noah asked as the queue moved.
“Great.” She hoped her voice sounded normal. “I’ve heard the Scilly Isles are really lovely.”
“Isles of Scilly,” Trystan said.
Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”
Noah took her hand. “We don’t call them the Scilly Isles. It’s the Isles of Scilly or just Scilly. The Scillies is also acceptable.”
“I’m sure I’ve heard them called the Scilly Isles.”
“Lots of people call them that,” Trystan said. “Just not anyone who lives there. We don’t like it.”
“Why not?”
They looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged in unison.
“The Scilly Isles is easier to say,” she pointed out.
Trystan winced. “Can you please stop it?”
She laughed loudly. “It’s like it’s physically painful for you to hear!”
“It is,” Trystan said. “In a way that only a Scillonian can understand.”
“A what?”
“Scillonian,” Noah explained. “Someone from Scilly.”
“Wow. I’m learning a lot about theScilly Islestoday.” She couldn’t resist teasing.
“Exactly how attached to her are you?” Trystan asked Noah.
“Not very.” Noah dropped her hand and moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Trystan with their backs to her.
More laughter burst from her, taking all her previous tension about the trip with it. Oddly, the fact that they weren’t jetting off to Italy was a relief. Going to an island off Cornwall made much more sense, and she felt easier about the whole thing.
Putting a hand on Noah’s shoulder and one on Trystan’s, she edged between them and adopted her most serious tone. “I’m very sorry. Please will you let me come to the Isles of Scilly with you?”
They exchanged a mock thoughtful look before stepping aside and letting her between them.