‘So could I maybe stay for a little? With you?’ he asked. ‘And we could work things out gradually? The two of us? Together? You and me? With an end goal of us never being apart again?’
Cassie’s heart lurched. He had meanttogethertogether. Her eyes filled.
‘One step at a time?’ he added.
‘Sounds pretty good to me.’ She was crying now and also smiling.
James put the elephant down and moved round the table, took her hands and pulled her to her feet.
He smoothed her hair away from her face, very gently, and then cupped both her cheeks with his hands.
‘I love you, Cassie Adair.’ He brushed her tears away with his thumbs. ‘You’ve been driving me insane since the moment we first spoke on the phone and I don’t think I can live without you.’
‘I’vebeen drivingyouinsane? Honestly.’ Cassie smiled some more and sniffed. ‘I love you too, James Grey.’
His beautiful blue eyes were on hers and then on her lips. He leaned a little closer to her. She could see the fine lines at the corners of his eyes crinkling as his smile grew. She inched nearer to him.
‘I love you so much,’ he said. And then he leaned down and kissed her, gently at first, and then very urgently, like the world was ending.
Epilogue
James
James looked out from the stage at the sea of expectant faces below him, gave the mic a little tap, nodded at Bob and Ken in the band, did a big conducting motion with his arms towards the guests, and started singing, ‘Happy birthday to you.’
Leila, the birthday girl, leaned out of her mother’s arms, made a grab for the mic and yelled ‘Dadadadada.’
When everyone had finished singing and clapping, James spoke into the mic again. ‘Just so you know,’ he told them all. ‘Our daughter’s a genius. Not a lot of people take their first stepsandsay Dada on their first birthday.’
While everyone cheered again, James felt in his pocket for the box.
He was going to do it, right now. It was the perfect time, with all the people they loved the most here together in the marquee in the field.
The box was there. Solid, square, Tiffany.
He turned and looked at Cassie. She was busy planting kisses all over Leila’s face while Leila laughed and laughed. Could a man’s heart actually burst from happiness?
He was going to go for it. He cleared his throat and people looked up.
‘So thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you to all our friends on the island, obviously.’ He caught Laura’s eye, and Dina’s, and those of his fishing and poker buddies and grinned at them all. ‘And to everyone who’s flown over here from Scotland, and England, and France, and Jordan.’ A big cheer went up from the European and Middle Eastern contingents. Now was the time to say it. Ask them if they’d come again, maybe next summer, maybe around Leila’s second birthday, for a wedding. He looked at Cassie and imagined sayingMy wife and I. And then he imagined how awful it would be if shedidn’twant to get married. She’d been adamant that they should take things slowly, apparently terrified that he’d leave her otherwise. Obviously having a baby and spending your whole time living together between the island and London was not in practice taking things slowly, but in theory they hadn’t made anything official. He felt the box again. Nope. He couldn’t go through with it. Stupidly high-risk strategy doing it in front of everyone. ‘Have a fantastic afternoon and evening,’ he told them all, and raised his glass. ‘To Leila.’
‘Are you okay?’ Cassie asked him when they got a moment together after they’d all had cake – a gigantic, sparkly caterpillar one, which had been pretty spectacular if James said so himself – while Ella was supervising her girls playing with their little cousin on the bouncy castle they had set up on the flat part of the field. ‘You seemed a bit distracted during your speech.’
‘Yep. All good.’ James hugged her and kissed the top of her head.
‘Okay. Great. If you’re sure.’
‘Yes. Really.’ That ring box was burning a hole in his pocket. He really didn’t have the courage to do it, though. Maybe it would end up sitting in a drawer in the house for the rest of time.
Bob and Ken finished belting out Bruce Springsteen – they were men from a certain era and they liked to play music from that era – and switched to Jennifer Rush’s ‘The Power of Love’.
James detached himself from Matt, Josh and the rest of their boisterous group and held his hand out to Cassie for a slow dance. He still got a new thrill, every single time, when he took her in his arms. He was so very certain that he’d feel like this for the rest of their lives. And he really wanted to marry her. And he was too much of a coward to tell her.
‘Got to love Bob and Ken,’ he said in her ear. ‘I’m pretty sure that this song was released in time forourfirst birthdays.’
‘I know. But everyone’s having a fab time.’ Cassie yawned.
‘You okay? Why don’t we go and sit down?’ It had been a lot of work organising this party and if he was honest Cassie had done more of it than he had. Plus they were juggling Leila and work, including their new ecotourism venture involving an island further down the coast. Not surprising that Cassie was tired. ‘Some stargazing?’
