Everything had been wonderful before he kissed me, but it all fell into place as we moved together. Lucas wanted me just as I wanted him. He wanted a thousand moments like this.
He pulled back. ‘I love you too. You’re wonderful and kind and beautiful and I want you so much and I promise I always will.’
It was my turn to smile on his lips.
We jerked apart when cheers broke out across the road. We turned towards Bonnie and Joshua’s cottage. Aster and Callum stood in the doorway, Lucas’s best friend sobbing despite his wide smile. Errol, Louisa, Bonnie, and Joshua were piled on top of each other, craning out of the living room window.
‘I kind of forgot that going outside didn’t mean we could have a private conversation,’ Lucas muttered.
‘You can never escape us,’ Bonnie yelled.
I stepped back, but didn’t release him. I wound my arm through Lucas’s and leant into his side as we walked along the island’s only road towards home.
‘I’m really glad I came to Doughnut,’ Lucas mused, his shoulder firm next to mine. I wanted him here always. ‘Did I ever tell you that I didn’t actually agree to coming here? Aster found the job and applied for me, and I just went along with it.’ He darted to the side to kiss my cheek. ‘I’m so glad I only learnt to say no today.’
‘Me too.’ I tucked my chin into my scarf and grinned. ‘Although maybe you didn’t have to scream at Joshua that his cupcakes were awful.’
Lucas grimaced. ‘They were terrible, though.’
‘The worst.’
I steered him towards the seawall. We weren’t out of listening distance if anyone in the pack was desperate to eavesdrop, but they at least wouldn’t be able to see us too easily. I pulled him into a hug and breathed deep of his earthy scent, my nose buried in his hair.
‘I choose you, Kit,’ Lucas murmured. He pulled back to look at me. ‘Your smile is the best thing in the universe.’
I couldn’t stop beaming at him. I didn’t stop for a long time, not even as his lips grazed mine and our eyes closed and we were lost to anything but each other.
EPILOGUE
JACOB
One week later
‘This isn’t-’ I caught myself muttering under my breath and finished the rest of the sentence in my big bald head,a huge mistake.
Returning to the island meant giving up even a faint hint of privacy. Things I didn’t want the beasties circling me at all times to hear and become pathetically sad about needed to stay within the confines of my mind.
I tapped my fingers on the boat’s railing rather than saying anything out loud.Not a mistake. Not a mistake. Not a mistake.
I loved the island. I loved Mum and Dad. I loved the bakery. Loved Margie.
I loved Joshua. More than anything else.
But there were certain restrictions that came with living on a tiny island. Restrictions I was walking back into willingly. No one had made me return. Joshua might have cried more often than not when we talked on the phone – I refused to comment on whether I did as well – and our parents might have askedseveral times a week when I was planning on coming home, but none of them had put pressure on me. Not purposefully.
They just loved me. And I loved them. Love was a brilliant reason to forfeit freedom and the perfect anonymousness that travelling between city after city had offered.
I pushed my thick, black framed glasses up my nose, the details of the island coming into focus even for someone as shortsighted as me. The colourful row of cottages; Bonnie and Joshua’s lime green at one end – which didn’t feel like home no matter how much they insisted it was – and the pink bakery in the middle. It was impossible since my nose was normal and human, but I could almost smell the burnt sugar sweetness of Margie’s jam tarts that the kids of the island went wild for.
Coming back here couldn’t be a mistake. Not with the way my heart leapt at the thought of Margie’s wiry arms around my middle, her springy hair tickling my chin.
Behind the long line of multicoloured cottages, the island rose up into green mountains. Even the tops were devoid of snow after a sun-drenched summer. The lock in the middle of the island was a circular expanse of blue. I couldn’t wait to throw on a pair of trunks and dive into the crystal clear water. I’d float on my back and close my eyes, then being on the island wouldn’t feel like a trap closing around me anymore.
To one side of the island’s village, the only road curved up into the mountains towards Callum’s cabin. Apparently, he had a boyfriend now. I squinted at the jetty. I couldn’t make out the details of the group assembled there, but Aster the Witch was most likely part of it. The pack wasn’t good at closing ranks. It might have been nice to come home to a meal with my family, without a load of added extras thrown into the mix.
I didn’t mind. Not really.
Not a mistake. Not a mistake. Not a mistake.
