Obviously, they weren’t being as discreet as she’d hoped.
She swallowed and was about to answer when Xavier spoke over her.
‘Yes, I’m afraid I did. And I came here to apologise and tell your sister how much I love and miss her.’
He turned back to face her and looked directly into her eyes.
She just stood there, dumbstruck, with blood rushing in her ears, wondering if she’d misheard him.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, with such emotion in his voice she knew immediately that he genuinely meant it. ‘I’m so sorry for hurting you.’ He put his hands on the counter and leant in closer to her. ‘I don’t work properly without you. You’ve changed me, changed the way I think about life and what love really is. I don’t deserve you, Soli, I know that, but I want you back. I want us all to be a family.’
‘Really?’ was all she could think to reply to that, her scrambled brain slow to catch up with everything he was saying.
‘Yes. Really. I got spooked when you told me about the baby because I’d promised myself I wouldn’t fall for you, and it made me realise that I had. That I wanted you more than I should. I’ve been a complete idiot. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me – you and the baby.’
There was a loud gasp and a squeal from the direction of her mother and sister, but Soli ignored it, her attention focused solely on Xavier now.
‘You really want me back?’ she asked shakily.
‘Yes,’ he said with more determination in his voice than she’d ever heard before. He moved round to the opening in the counter and took her hand in his, gently tugging on it to ask her to follow him out to the floor of the cafe.
When they were both standing in front of the now mostly silent room – since the whole of the clientele appeared to have stopped playing their games to stare at them instead – Xavier dropped to one knee and looked up at her with such intensity in his eyes her heart nearly flew out of her body with excitement. His hand was shaking as he held onto hers tightly, their palms pressed hard together, and she realised with a shock that he was scared. He was afraid she would reject him, but he was still going through with this, in front of all these people.
He wasn’t hiding any more.
He swallowed, looking as though he was having trouble starting his sentence, but his voice was loud and clear when he spoke. ‘As you’re aware, I find it really hard to trust people, but I know – I guess I’ve always known, deep down – that I can trust you, Soli. I love the idea of you being the mother of my child. You’re the most wonderful, caring, compassionate person I’ve ever met, and it would be a huge privilege to spend the rest of my life with you.’
There was a low murmur from the crowd, but he didn’t let it distract him.
‘I promise you, I will do everything in my power to make you happy. I’ll give you everything I have, everything, if you’ll come back home with me.’
She could barely breathe as the reality of his words began to sink in.
‘I love you, Solitaire McQueen. Will you marry me,’ he paused and smiled before adding, ‘for real this time?’
Soli thought her heart might explode with happiness.
Xavier loved her and he wanted them all to be a family. A real family.
‘I love you too,’ she sobbed, unable to control her emotions any longer. ‘And yes,’ she took a steadying breath, ‘I’ll marry you.’ She grinned through her tears. ‘Again.’
He kissed her hand before standing up and pulling her into his arms, where he held her to him so tightly she could barely breathe, before finally drawing away just far enough to kiss her deeply, with the love and emotion she’d always known he had in him.
‘We’ll make one hell of a team, Mrs McQueen,’ he murmured against her lips, and she knew, right then, that there would be no more games.
She’d won the ultimate prize.
EPILOGUE
BINGO – HOLD YOUR NERVE FOR THE ULTIMATE PRIZE.
Five years later
‘Found you!’ came the excited voice of four-year-old Faith McQueen as she pulled back the curtain to reveal her mother crouched on the window seat behind it.
‘Darn! And I thought I had the perfect hiding place,’ Soli said with a grin, ruffling the hair of her eldest daughter and pulling her in for a kiss.
‘Mum, let go – I still need to find Dad and Joy,’ Faith said, struggling out of her arms, but not before dabbing one last wet kiss on Soli’s cheek.
