Adam nodded.
“The place needs work.”
“What’s this?” Laura looked from Adam to Evans.
“I took on an exciting task, then lost all my money. Now I have to live in something that ranks slightly lower than a cardboard box under Waterloo Bridge.”
“What do you mean lost all your—” She paused. There was no need to discuss Adam’s private life in front of Evans.
The man mumbled something about going to get a cuppa and left them.
“This is what you told me about your father-in-law emptying the bank-account?”
He nodded.
She offered him the plate of sandwiches. “I think you need this more than me, being penniless and all.”
A beautiful smile curved his lips as he reached for a couple of triangles of cucumber sandwiches. “Not even utter catastrophe can damage your sense of humour.”
If she was going to let misfortune steal her sense of humour, she’d have never survived her childhood with her grandmother.
“Besides,” She gave him a cheeky grin. “I think this is what you wished for, isn’t it?”
In answer to his blank look, she said, “The poem about losing everything and starting from nothing. That didn’t apply when you had half a million pounds in the bank. Now you have nothing and can really start. Your dream is coming true. A clinic, a new house that you can build. You should be excited.”
His eyes travelled over her face. “That wasn’t my dream. The clinic, the house, those were only garnish.” He fixed her with his intense gaze.
The silence became loaded and made her heart beat faster.
“I thought,” She tried for a light voice, “you wanted to make a clinic and settle here to be a doctor.”
“Laura, no. No. That was never my dream. It’s just a job. There are plenty of worthwhile doctoring jobs to be had in places of need around the world. What I couldn’t find anywhere was a reason to feel hope again.”
He took the plate of sandwiches from her hand and placed it on the stone nearest them. Then he brought her hand to his face and laid it on his cheek.
“I wanted to stay here for one reason only,” he said. “I wanted to be with you. But,” He pressed his face into her palm. Although newly shaven, she could feel a faint hint of stubble and something ticking in his jaw.
“But?” she asked when he didn’t continue.
“I don’t know if you want me, considering how I lied to you. I’m sorry, more than I could ever say. I just got into the habit of compartmentalizing my life and keeping that miserable, shameful part hidden. I never meant to deceive you.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Yes. The night we went up on the roof to look at the stars. I actually walked in to your room ready to tell you, but seeing you in that dark red shirt drove everything else out of mind.”
She thought back. “You tried to talk but I didn’t let you.”
“Anyway, there’s also the matter of the heebie jeebies.” He flicked his eyes towards the church.
“What do the heebie jeebies actually mean?”
“It means that although I’m in love with you, I don’t trust myself to ever stand in another church and make any kind of vow.”
She snatched her hand away. “Don’t you dare do that. Don’t slip in mention of being in love with me under some other red herring about an attack of the willies.”
“Why not? You slipped your declaration under a drunken verbal lashing in full view and hearing of half a dozen people.”
“Oh, you noticed that, did you?”
