“How are you feeling?” asked Amber.
He smiled at her perspicacity. “Fine,” he said, and her face dropped a bit.
“Really? Just ‘fine’?”
“Yes, I feel good.”
“So, what have you been thinking about as we’ve been driving along—you’ve been very quiet?”
“I was thinking that I feel good.” But even as he said it, he’d realized that he was lying. He’d been thinking a whole lot more. He never lied. “You’re right. I was thinking that I really like you.” Again, the words were a weak reflection of his thoughts. It seemed that years of practice had been effective—he couldn’t describe his emotions even when he wanted to. He opened his mouth to speak but, instead, he shook his head.
She raised his hand to her lips and kissed it. “We’ll be home soon and then you can show me how you feel.”
David didn’t think it could get better than that and put his foot on the accelerator.
As parking was limited in front of the cottages, David parked around the corner, close to where Gabe’s doctor’s surgery was.
Amber closed the door and glanced towards the surgery, where the lights were on. “Looks like Gabe and Maddy are home.”
David slammed the car door, locked it and put his arm around Amber, hoping like hell she wouldn’t suggest a visit. To his intense relief, she didn’t. Instead, she rested her head against his chest and they walked down the hill.
Before them, the coast road ran along the beach front. The sky above the hills on the far side of the harbor was still shot with colors of the sunset. David didn’t think he could remember seeing anything more beautiful. By contrast, the sea was dark and limpid, barely moving in the still evening. But it would be, he knew. The tide would be shifting under the perfectly calm surface. Nothing was ever as it seemed. He knew that. He also knew that the woman by his side was too trusting to know that. And it made what he’d done all the harder to think about. But he’d make it right. He’d already begun the process.
Without the car to herald their arrival, they managed to gain access to her house without alerting the neighbors. Amber only just managed to smother a giggle before she quietly inserted the key and they entered the house. She flicked on a light, then looked at him. “That’s a sign to my lovely neighbors that I’m home. They insisted. They reckon they can’t settle until they see the light.”
“What if you’re at Belendroit?”
“Then they can still see my light at Belendroit from over here. See?” She said, pointing to the distant promontory along the shoreline, its lanterns shining.
“But the lanterns are always on.”
“Not that end one. It’s dark now, and I always light it when I’m there. My neighbors know that, Gabe knows that. Everyone who knows me knows that.” She turned to him. “And you know that now, too.”
He put his arms around her and shook his head. “Everyone looks out for you.”
“I know. It’s nice, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” It was, but it still seemed strange to him.
He was about to kiss her, but she moved away and pulled the curtains a little. She looked at him with a shy smile. “There, a little privacy. Would you like a drink?”
There was only one thing he wanted, but he sensed she was feeling uncertain.
“Sure. A coffee would be great.”
“I only have decaf, is that all right?”
He groaned inwardly. Of course she would. “Fine, thanks.”
She grinned. “You and that ‘fine’ word. You know, I’m going to work on you, make you say something crazy and out there like ‘great’, or ‘fantastic’!”
“And that’sfinewith me,” he said with a grin. “My mind is going a bit crazy imagining what you might do to bring this great feat about.”
Her smile faded a little. “I don’t know myself,” she said.
He sighed and looked away. It was all he could do to stop himself from following her like a little puppy dog, anxious for her petting, her affections. He pushed his fingers through his hair, suddenly annoyed with himself to be brought to such a low. What the hell was he doing?
“Milk?”
