It took me a minute to recognise that Jamie looked nervous and was holding out a small velvet box. I didn’t know what to make of it. I couldn’t compute the information. He opened the box and inside nestled in silk was a round gold ring, inlaid with a line of rectangular emeralds and flanked top and bottom by a line of smaller white diamonds.
And then he took my hand and said, ‘Lucy Collins, I know we got married in a rush and I know we both made out like it hadn’tmeant anything, but I think I speak for both of us when I say, that was a big fat lie and that it actually did mean a lot?’
I nodded. Speechless.
He said, ‘I saw this when I was working in Argentina. We were in Buenos Aires and I passed a shop... and it made me think of you and I think it’s more like an eternity ring, but eternity sounds OK to me...’
My eyes were stinging. ‘You’re saying you want forever?’
He nodded and pushed some of my hair back over my shoulder. ‘Does that freak you out?’
I shook my head, my vision blurring. The sense of coming home was exhilarating.‘No, because in three years I’ve never forgotten you, or stopped wanting you. I think that sounds really, really good. I don’t want to be apart from you again, Jamie.’
‘Me neither, I’m so glad you came here, Luce.’
He took my hand and slid the ring onto my finger. It fit. Like a sign from the universe. I looked at it and then to Jamie. ‘I love you, and it’s OK if you’re not really there yet, but I’m happy to just see – ‘
He stopped my words with his mouth and then pulled back, smiling. ‘What part of eternity didn’t you get?’
I was crying now. ‘I know, but – ‘
He put a finger to my mouth and said, ‘I love you, Lucy. I fell for you three years ago and it’s just taken me a really stupidly long time to get back to you.’
I sniffed. ‘Forgiven. So what happens now?’
‘I guess we... spend our first Christmas together and we keep going.’
He grinned. I grinned. I said, ‘OK, that sounds good.’
Much later, after becoming very well reacquainted, we took George out into the snow. We looked at the clear night sky full of dancing Northern Lights – no seriously, it was ridiculouslyromantic - and then we ate and drank and talked. And then we went to bed on the most magical night of the year and woke up to a bright new pristine world where we were still married and staying that way. For a lot longer than forty eight hours. Forever.
Epilogue
LUCY
Almost a year later, I parked the car in the forecourt of Kinlay Castle and George was waiting for me, his tail wagging so hard his whole body moved. It hadn’t snowed yet but it would, any day now.
I got out and bent down to hug him and accept a wet kiss. I’d been meeting a newly engaged couple on a nearby estate who wanted to hire me for their wedding next year.
The interior of Kinlay Castle had been decorated for Christmas to within an inch of its life and I could see lights twinkling through the windows and the fires roaring.
I’d sold up my Dublin apartment about six months before and had officially moved Lucy Collins-Ross Events to Scotland. And I was busy. I no longer pretended weddings didn’t move me. I’d actually cried at one groom’s speech recently. Thankfully Jamie hadn’t witnessed it.
I’d met Jess, his sister and loved her almost as much as I did him. We’d both met the parents – his mother was cold,but I’d expected that.And my folks were just happy that I was happy. In fact, I was probably seeing more of them now. My father had already been to Scotland that summer with his wife and myyounger half-brothers and sisters and my mother had found a local silent meditation retreat centre.
My heart skipped a beat when a familiar figure came into view. He was in jeans and a fleece jacket and he looked rugged and masculine and sexy.
He came straight up to me with an intense look on his face that already had me wet with desire and lifted me up into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him and we kissed like we hadn’t seen each other in three years. It had been four hours.
When we came up for air, he pulled back. ‘God, I missed you. I’m going to lock you in here and then you can never go anywhere ever again.’
‘Ooh, that sounds positively controlling and not creepy at all.’
He grinned and let me down. I unpeeled myself from him. He took my hand. ‘Come on, let me show you what we’ve done with the walled garden.’
He was in his element working at the castle hauling it into the twenty-first century and we had big plans. We were already renting it out for weddings and events – eventually this would become my full-time job, and he was already using it for students on the camera course he was teaching, for field trips – filming in the wild.
And, a TV production had been here to shoot a new period drama series and they were booked in for the second season.
