His arms came around my torso, and he pulled me to him so his head pressed against my stomach. ‘Couldn’t you stay?’
My hands came to rest on the top of his shoulders. I didn’thaveto go, but I wanted to. Sometimes, with all this luxury around me, all the nice restaurants and fabulous people we socialised with, it felt as if I was living on a different planet from my parents.
‘They’ll be disappointed enough if you don’t show up,’ I said, smiling. God, my parents loved Justin. Sometimes, I even felt they were a little bit in awe of him.
‘You’re the only person who really understands, who gives me any semblance of support,’ he said, looking up at me.
I smoothed his floppy fringe away from his forehead. ‘You’ll be working most of the afternoon.’
He kissed my stomach and pulled me tighter. ‘Come with me,’ he mumbled into my dress.
I laughed softly at his teasing. ‘I won’t be of much use! What do I know about contemporary dance?’
‘But just having you there will be enough. You’re my lucky charm. You know how good you are for me …’
He was always saying things like this, making me feel wanted, special. Powerful.
I looked down at his beautiful face. I loved the fact he was a sensitive man, not afraid to show his emotions, to be vulnerable on occasion. And he kept his promises too – not like other men who’d promised the world then disappeared.If Justin said he’d be my champion, he was my champion. When he told me what we had was special, he stuck around and proved it. This was a man I could trust my heart with one hundred per cent.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll stay.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Now.
WHAT ON EARTH was he doing? He should be at home, reading Willow her bedtime story, not sitting here on a high-speed train hurtling through the Scottish countryside. He blamed the adrenaline. He’d looked at Alice sitting on that bench on the station concourse, looking all wobbly but determined to get on the train and travel five hundred miles on her own. Before he’d known it, he’d been running back towards her from the ticket office, and then they’d sprinted for the train together. His heart rate still hadn’t returned to normal.
He was travelling again.
Only to London – hardly somewhere new or exotic for him – but the high of heading off to new places, only half a plan in his head, had kicked in hard. God, he’d missed it.
But that was the problem. He wasn’t supposed to be enjoying it. He wasn’t supposed to be happy to be leaving Willow with Norina while he disappeared into the night. That wasn’t the deal he’d made with himself when he’d come back to Invergarrig.
And that wasn’t the only hitch in his not-so-brilliantly-thought-out plan.
He wasn’t just travelling. He was travelling with Lili. The déjà vu was overpowering, reminding him just how much of an intense experience it had been haring around London together, unable to let go of each other’s hands for more than a minute or two.
And now, sitting across a plastic table from her as the train sped through the darkness, it was hard not to remember how soft her skin had felt beneath his fingertips, her lips against his. Not a good idea, Ben. Not a good idea at all. This was going to be a really long five hours.
To distract himself, he pulled his phone out and checked train times for his return journey. He hadn’t had time to think about that back at Glasgow Central and had just grabbed a single for the same train as Alice. It turned out there was a sleeper train leaving Euston about forty-five minutes after this train arrived. With any luck, he’d be safely back in Invergarrig just after breakfast.
He felt Alice’s eyes on him and looked up just as he was about to press ‘Buy Ticket’.
‘I was going to ask you something,’ she said.
He put his phone down on the table. ‘Fire away.’
‘About the photos in the cottage, in my— Well, inyourroom.’
‘Okay …’
‘I was wondering where they were taken, particularly the one of the ruined church.’
Ben’s stomach immediately fell into his boots.
‘I found I couldn’t stop looking at it. It just seemed so …’
‘Magical?’ he offered, his insides churning hard.
