Doug looked at Vic. ‘You all right for food, lass?’
‘Yes, yes, thanks.’ Vic nodded, thinking it really was quite like a family here.
Cole grabbed another biscuit. ‘Anyway, I say, ignore the naysayers. Which is quite ironic considering I don’t tell anyone. But I’m a bloke and I have needs. Hence me being here tonight. I’ve been hiding behind this diagnosis for too long. It’s time to get myself out there, but I want to do right by the women I meet, without scaring the shit out of them when I tell them.’
‘Aww,’ Vic said aloud, without meaning to. ‘Well done, and I hear you, I really do.’ She poured herself a mug of tea. ‘Do you want one?’
‘Coffee, please. I’ve only had a pint but best not to smell of it in front of the shrink.’
Cole’s mobile rang. ‘I need to take this – see you in a minute.’ He winked and pushed open the double doors out to the garden before Vic had a chance to pour his drink and give it to him.
Chrissie appeared. ‘All right, Vic. Looks like this could be it: just me, you and our Cole. He’s a good lad, that one.’ The savvy support worker waved at Cole, who was sitting outside on the bench seat chatting to someone animatedly. Checking her watch, she beckoned him to head in.
‘Hey, Chrissie, how you doing?’ he said as he came back into the room.
‘Happy to see you, lad. You all right? Told your mum yet?’
Cole shook his head. ‘Why do I need to do that when I’vegot you here, hey?’ He then grinned. Vic could tell the obvious bond between them.
‘I held off telling my mum, too, but she already knew.’ Vic smiled.
Chrissie nodded. ‘We know everything, us mums. And even if my lad came home and said he’d robbed the vicarage, I’d still have to help him. Like lionesses, we are. Whatever the situation.’
‘Give over, the pair of you. You’re ganging up on me now.’ Cole poured himself a coffee and then started to devour the sandwich that Doug had just put down on the table. The front-door buzzer rang.
‘Right. Take a seat, you two – that must be our man. I’ll have a quick chat and bring him through.’
Cole looked at Victoria. ‘You’re not my type, but you won’t have trouble finding anyone. You’re beautiful, darlin’.’
Vic shook her head in amusement. ‘I’ll allow the compliment – thank you.’
As Chrissie walked in followed by the counsellor, Vic’s smile was abruptly knocked off her face and her jaw dropped open in absolute shock and astonishment.
‘So, I explained to Jerico that it’s just you two tonight, but he’s happy to be here and chat, as he’s given up his time anyway.’
Jerico Flint’s emerald-green eyes locked onto Victoria’s as he sat down opposite her, and, as she looked into his soul, her bottom lip started to wobble. Shooting up onto her feet, she rushed through the open doors into the garden.
She was standing in the garden with her head in her hands when she heard him follow her out there and felt his arm rest around her shoulders.
‘I knew there had to be a reason. I mean, who turns down the advances of an extremely handsome and debonairebestselling author?’ Jerico’s voice was calm and measured, even as he joked.
Vic couldn’t even look at him. ‘I couldn’t tell you.’
‘I understand.’ Jerico squeezed her shoulder. ‘But now I know what we’re dealing with here, I couldn’t be happier.’
‘Happy?’
‘Yes, because now I understand.’
‘And now you can walk away without getting involved.’ Vic’s throat expressed a funny little anguished squeak.
‘Au contraire, Queen V,au contraire. That would be like me walking away from a lifetime of sunshine.’
Vic bit her lip. ‘That is possibly the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me in my life.’
‘It’s true,’ Jerico replied gently. ‘I haven’t stopped thinking about you from the moment we kissed.’
Vic cleared her throat. ‘I’ve got so much to say to you, but this is not the time or the place. There’s no way I can stay for this session.’
