‘I’m sorry, too.’ Her words were no more than a whisper. ‘You’re right.’ Her voice gathered strength. ‘Iwashurting more than I knew was possible the night that Tom died but I knew you were hurting just as badly and I wanted so much to comfort you, and that made me feel as guilty as if we had been cheating on Tom and the only way I could deal with that was to believe that itwasall your fault. The way I’d felt. The accident. The future that had been destroyed. It was me who blamed you first. I’m the one who said you shouldn’t be allowed to come to the funeral and I’m truly sorry for that. Tom loved you. He would have wanted you to be there.’
‘Iwasthere,’ Luc said softly. ‘I just didn’t let anyone see me.’
Sophie’s breath was a small sigh. Of relief. Or maybe it was the feeling that a tiny piece of the puzzle of her life had been found and slotted into the place to fill a significant gap.
She wanted to say something as beautiful as Luc had said but while her heart was far too full, her head felt empty.
‘I had to come and find you,’ was all she could find to say. ‘So I could tell you that I love you. I think I always have. IknowI always will.’
The look on Luc’s face as he closed the distance between them suggested that he was as moved by her words as she had been by his.
That was how it felt, too, when his lips touched hers in a kiss that was so heartbreakingly tender she had to pull away before it made her cry. For a long, long moment they simply stared into each other’s eyes. Drinking in the love. Soaking in a new trust that nothing would ever need to be hidden between them again. Believing in a future that they would be able to share.
They had found their way back to each other and that was exactly where they needed to be.
They had forever to play with now.
Sophie finally managed to tear her gaze away from Luc but she put her hand in his to keep the contact.
‘Show me?’ she asked.
‘What would you like to see?’
‘Everything. The house. The project you’ve been working on.’
‘Are you sure? It’s getting late. I could take you back to my hotel.’
Sophie smiled. To be alone with Luc in a room with a bed was where she wanted to be more than anywhere else. She knew that their time together tonight would be even more intense than the emotional connection they’d found in Luc’s apartment in Draguignan.
But she needed just a little more time. Because there was something worth waiting for that might make this night even more memorable for both of them. Sophie was very aware of the shape and weight of the phone she was carrying in her pocket. She couldn’t switch off the rest of the world quite yet.
‘Soon. But I’m standing at the beginning of your dream coming true. Will you take me inside and let me share it?’
Luc was holding her gaze again with a look that Sophie thought she might well drown in and she had no desire to try and save herself.
His grip on her hand tightened. ‘Let me show you the fireplace I’m restoring.’
The glow of the restored fire surround was a dramatic contrast to the dusty, faded floorboards of this huge room. She traced the carved pattern of the ivy leaves and ran her fingers over the soft gleam of the cast iron as Luc quietly shared his vision for this space in the house.
‘I want this to be the room that the kids will want to be in. To find friendships that will stay with them for life. To celebrate any milestones that are taking them into a better future. To know that they can come in here and find the support they need when things aren’t going so well. I want them to know that it’s home, if that’s what they need. That they have a family.’
Sophie looked up to catch Luc’s gaze. ‘The gift of family,’ she whispered. ‘Tom’s legacy.’
‘Come with me. I’ll show you upstairs. Where all the bedrooms are going to be.’
Sophie took one last glance at the result of so many hours’ work by Luc. She touched a fingertip to one of the pretty ceramic tiles.
‘These are gorgeous.’
‘That would be the delphiniums,’ Luc said. ‘Have I ever told you how much I love that particular shade of blue?’
* * *
Luc led Sophie towards the door to get to the main staircase.
‘Did you leave Hannah in France?’ he asked.
‘No, she came back on the same flight as me. Right now, she’s talking to her father. Telling him the truth. Tomorrow, she’s going to make a public statement to exonerate you. I’m not sure how but when she helped me find someone who deserved to have the wedding dress I was never going to use, she started on social media and then got on the radio and into newspapers. She might well be able to change what’s happening.’
