I squeeze his hands.
‘We need to give each other a chance to give us a chance,’ he says.
‘I will,’ I whisper. ‘I promise.’ I press a kiss against his mouth.
‘You can’t keep running whenever things get hard, Sienna,’ Luc says. ‘You need to get better at communicating.’
A tear escapes my eye. I nod. ‘I will.’
‘I trust you,’ he breathes.
‘I trust you, too.’
He lifts his arm and makes space for me on his chest. I crawl inside and my eyes flutter shut as soon as my head meets his body. The weight of what we’ve said weighs on me.Don’t run. I trust you.
‘Luc,’ I mumble. ‘I’m scared.’
‘Scared of what?’ He presses a kiss to the top of my head and runs his fingers up and down his arms.
‘What if there’s a time when I want to run?’
He pauses and swallows loudly.
A sob escapes from my mouth. I can’t stop it. ‘I think there probably will be.’
‘Yeah, I imagine there will be – you are still you.’ Luc swallows and his throat bobs against my head. ‘You just need to communicate that you want to, and we’ll figure it out.’
I bury myself deeper in his body, my hand under his shirt, skin on mine. ‘And it’ll be okay?’
‘I can’t promise it’ll be okay, but I can promise that we will both try with everything in us to make it okay.’
‘I can work with that.’
CHAPTER 29
THIS AND THAT
TRACK 9 | SWEETHEARTS INSIDE AT NIGHT
‘This and That’ is a song about how when you’re so different to someone, but it just works. It’s me and Luc down to a tee.
‘Hello,’I call into the warm hallway as soon as I’ve turned the key in the lock on Mauve’s front door. Rory’s laughter greets me, shortly followed by Jess’s low voice. Mauve is clattering about in the kitchen on my right and Mimi is with her, arguing about how long the potatoes should be boiled for before they go into the oven.
I was close to not coming. I don’t think I will ever trust Mauve again. Not after how she’s acted. But if I want to be at Rory’s birthday meal, I must see Mauve too.
There are so many people here to be our buffer, anyway.
Luc takes my bag, holding it with the small gift bag for Rory, while I take off my raincoat and scrape my shoes against the doormat. I slip them off my feet and place them neatly next to the front door.
I pop my head around the kitchen door. ‘Hi, Mauve. Mimi! Hi!’ I call.
They both drop the argument and turn to me. Mimi comes to the doorway, but Mauve doesn’t move from the other side of the kitchen.
‘How are you doing?’ Mimi asks.
‘I’m good!’ I reply. ‘My legs ache and the tiredness is setting in.’ I tuck my hair behind my ear and smile. ‘But I’m good. I’m enjoying it.’
‘How are you?’ I ask Mimi, ignoring Mauve banging about in the background.
