‘You’re amazing,’ I breathed, far too grateful to feel the usual level of embarrassment that I’d over-complimented Kit yet again. ‘Thank you.’
‘Come on.’ Kit reached for the door, but not before I noted the faint blush rising to his cheeks. ‘We should go before I have to turn anyone else away.’
The shame hit. Kit had rescued me, and the first thing I’d done was make him uncomfortable. Holding my tongue, I followed him out of the surgery and quickly locked the door. We fell into step on the road along the front of the cottages. Bonnie and Joshua’s seemed a long way off.
‘Sorry for being odd again,’ I muttered.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Kit so wasn’t sure what his face was doing when he asked, ‘Pardon?’
‘I’m honestly not doing it on purpose,’ I said to the ground. ‘It’s just each time I’m around you, I say the stupidest stuff.’
Kit’s hand landed on my arm, forcing me to stop walking. The sea stretched behind him, the sun peeking out from behind clouds over to one side. It transformed the sky into a deep curtain of pinks and oranges.
‘You match the sky,’ I said, then whacked my face into my hands. ‘Shit. Why does this keep happening?’
Commenting on how Kit’s clothing reflected the setting wasn’t quite as weird as the other stuff I’d said to him, but it wasn’t exactly normal. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t get through a conversation with him without making unwelcome observations.
‘Have I always been like this?’ I said into my palms. I’d already done enough that Kit must think I was a freak, so it didn’t matter if I had a crisis in front of him. ‘Has Aster been a buffer between me and the world and without him around my weirdness is spewing out?’
‘Lucas?’
I groaned into my hands instead of blurting out that I liked how Kit said my name. It was different to how Aster yelled it or Mum grumbled it.
Gentle fingers wound around my wrists. Kit didn’t look strong, but he firmly pulled my hands from my face.
‘I’m sorry,’ I said, before he could attempt to salvage a conversation I was intent on messing up.
Kit pressed his lips together. ‘You need to stop saying that. And saying you’re weird. And avoiding me.’ He shook his head. ‘I want to get to know you, Lucas. Nothing you’ve said has changed that. In fact, everything you’ve said has probably been the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.’
My eyes widened. The shock slackening my jaw made it easy for more nonsense to slip out. ‘No one has told you that you look lovely before?’
More than a rosy glow flooded Kit’s face as he snatched his hands back from my wrists. ‘People tend more towards telling me I’m hot or fit.’
That’s what Aster had said. I didn’t see that, but I did see Kit’s warmth and his determination to befriend me despite the roadblocks I’d thrown in the way.
I’d wanted to be Kit’s friend even before I came to the island because of the stories Aster had told me about how he had looked after him during his fight with Callum. That desire hadn’t changed since we’d met. I thought my inability to control my vocal cords would make Kit want nothing to do with me, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
I turned towards Bonnie and Joshua’s cottage at the end of the row. ‘You are amazing for freeing me from my vet duties tonight,’ I said, deciding to trust that Kit didn’t mind what came out of my mouth around him.
‘It was just a case of calmly refusing to take no for an answer. My mum was a lawyer. She taught me how to stand my ground when I need to.’
I did have some control of my tongue, since I didn’t immediately ask if his mum had stopped being a lawyer or if the past tense meant she was dead. Maybe the only thing I couldn’t hold in was compliments about how soft and gentle Kit was. If that was the case, then we would have a vaguely normal friendship interspersed with my strange but not unwelcome observations.
CHAPTER TEN
KIT
I’d been prepared to fight a whole lot harder to persuade Lucas to stop avoiding me, but he was as unable to say no as Aster claimed. All the pointers Mum taught me about how to convince someone to your way of thinking weren’t needed. Lucas had folded as soon as I made it clear I didn’t mind the things he said, that I liked them.
I’d miss his kind words when he found a woman to settle down with. He was a beautiful man. The single ladies of the island wouldn’t keep to themselves for long.
I internally shook myself as I opened Bonnie and Joshua’s front gate and led the way into their cottage. Dreading an unknown time in the future when Lucas’s artless compliments would be showered on someone else was silly. I’d enjoy his attention while it lasted, then continue on with my life without them when he was gone.
‘I’m not sure there will be much food left.’ I pulled off my boots. ‘These guys are animals.’
Lucas smiled as he hung his coat on a hook already overflowing with waterproofs. ‘There’s leftover macaroni cheesein the fridge, right? I’m sure it will be as delicious reheated as it was fresh.’
Bright blush stormed his cheeks, but at least he didn’t apologise this time. I hoped everyone would blame the pink tint of my face on the fresh breeze outside, rather than the sparking joy that rose through me each time Lucas said something lovely and his heart didn’t miss a beat.
