He frowned, not understanding her response, but her gaze was fixed on the sea.
‘From what I’ve discovered about him,’ Augi continued, ‘he’s had a troubled upbringing. It would inevitably have affected the decisions he’s made. Maybe he can change.’
‘No one changes,’ he said, his voice sounding more bitter than he intended, as he thought of the woman he’d left behind in the US for whom duplicity had become a way of life.
That earned him another glance from Augi. ‘Well, let’s hope Oliver can, because otherwise I think Lucy will be devastated.’
That brought his mind back into focus. ‘Why?’
Another smile. ‘Can’t you see?’ she teased lightly.
‘See what?’
Her smile faded. ‘I guess you’re too close. But I’m not and I would say that Lucy has feelings for him. Strong feelings.’
He scoffed. ‘She sure has. She hates the man.’
‘I didn’t see hate in her eyes tonight, did you?’
Now he thought about it, Augi was right. ‘I guess… I guess not,’ he said with a sigh. ‘I wasn’t really looking. I was talking to Sam a lot of the time, and mucking about with Liam.’
‘Well, if you’d been looking you would have seen someone whose expression didn’t spell “hate” when she looked at Oliver.’ She paused. ‘Not until I revealed his secret.’ She sighed. ‘I’m so sorry that it was something I said which robbed her eyes of light.’
She turned to the sea, but her gaze seemed to go beyond the horizon. As if she wasn’t really looking at the dark line of the sea, and the white foam of the tranquil waves that reached out toward them, but at memories which excluded him.
He took a few steps until he was standing beside her, and cleared his throat. He was so drawn to this woman but felt as if she had an ocean of loneliness and self-sufficiency he couldn’t ever hope to bridge.
‘You exposed the truth. If she really does have feelings for him then it’s better she learns the facts now than later. You did her a huge favour.’
‘I hope so,’ she said quietly. ‘She’s always been very kind to me, as has Kate. I owe them.’
He was intrigued but didn’t want to be intrusive. But he was dying to know more. ‘Mum was always big on kindness.’ He paused, but she didn’t say anything. ‘Hated injustice of any kind.’ Another pause, another silence. ‘Did you… move here from Greece on your own?’
She nodded. ‘Yes,’ she replied quietly. ‘I wanted to move as far away as possible, so when I saw a job offered by Archives, I applied. I got the job and they sponsored my visa.’
‘I didn’t know you worked there.’
‘I don’t anymore. I’m not a city person,’ she added by way of explanation.
He was curious as to what lay behind this bare explanation — why she’d wanted to move as far away from Greece as possible, what was she running from — but didn’t want to ask further. ‘Well, I’m glad you ended up in MacLeod’s Cove, and found Mum.’
‘So am I,’ she said, looking up at him, her eyes searching his. ‘I could not have imagined this moment ten years ago.’
His frown deepened. ‘Was it bad? Where you came from?’
She nodded again, but this time she didn’t elaborate. Instead she bit her lip and looked away. And with that movement he knew he’d gone as far as he could — for tonight anyway.
‘Then I’m glad you’re here to witness this,’ he said stepping closer to the small waves which licked the water’s edge. ‘Give it a moment,’ he said. ‘It usually shows when you disturb it.’
Augi crouched and ran her fingers through the shallows.
At once, the water bloomed with light — a soft blue-green shimmer that traced her movements, flared briefly around her hand, then faded back into darkness.
She drew in a sharp breath. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘That’s…’
‘Yeah,’ he murmured. ‘It is.’
She laughed then — not loudly, but with a kind of startled delight that loosened something in his chest. She stood and took a step forward, dragging her foot through the water. The glow followed, outlining her ankle, her calf.
