“You said you would come for me,” Ari reminded him, squeezing his hand once more.
“Yeah, well.” Tom shifted, looking uncomfortable.
Ari gripped his hand harder. “And youdidcome for me, didn’t you Tom?”
The hand held in hers became like stone, and Tom turned to face her. “I... um...”
Ari smiled at him. It was warm and genuine. “Sebastian and Luis told me. Luis said that you came when Reine was about eighteen months old. You thought she was his.”
Abruptly, Tom looked flustered. He opened his mouth to speak before closing it again, looking out at the runway once more.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Tom sighed. “I nearly did. But then, each time I went to tell you, I thought to myself ‘why am I doing this?’ and couldn’t do it.”
“Why not?” Ari asked gently.
Tom gave a half-shrug. “I couldn’t think of a way to phrase it that didn’t make it sound like some kind of pitiful excuse. I left you in Europe, pregnant and alone—”
“You didn’t know I was pregnant,” Ari reminded him.
“Doesn’t matter. I left you. And then, what? I come back two years later, like a fool, expecting you to just... take me back? Expecting you to have put your life on hold for me while I figured mine out?”
“Tom—”
“I was so selfish,” Tom carried on, shaking his head in disgust. “So unbelievably selfish to have done that to you. When I had to go back for... for my dad, I could’ve left you with a number that worked. An address. Myrealname. I was terrified that if I did, you’d figure everything out and walk away and then I would have lost you for good. So, I left you with nothing, or next to nothing. Just a promise to come back.”
“I lived on that promise,” Ari admitted. “It kept me going when things were at their bleakest.”
“Bleak because of me,” Tom said. “I haven’t forgotten that. I’ll never forget that. After my dad died, I sat at home, miserable and grieving and missing you, and by the time I was ready to find you, by the time I’d worked up the courage to face you and tell you everything, to admit the whole horrible truth, I’d half-convinced myself that you’d moved on.”
“Why would you think that?” Ari asked. “You know how I loved you.”
Tom looked at her, his eyes anguished. She watched as he took a deep breath. “I convinced myself that you’d probably have moved on because I was so terrified to be honest with you. So, when that door opened and there was a man with your child on the other side of it...” Tom trailed off. “I was ready to run.”
Ari rubbed his hand gently with her own. “Oh, Tom.”
“I’m sorry,” Tom told her. “You’ll never know how sorry I am.”
“I know you are. But I’ve told you already, I’m tired of that word. You don’t have to keep telling me how sorry you are.” Ari stopped, taking a deep breath of her own. “I was so mad at you for not coming for me, you know. When I first saw you again last year, I could forgive you for Sasha, and the lies, and for leaving me in Germany. But what I couldn’t forgive was your breaking that promise. I told you, I lived for that promise. I put my life on hold for that promise. Thinking that you’d broken it...”
“Ari,” Tom pleaded. “I’m—”
“Sorry, I know,” Ari carried on. “I’ve spent the last year thinking I could never forgive you for not coming back for me. I spent a whole year thinking we could move on as co-parents. Maybe even friends. And then yesterday, when Luis and Sebastian told me youhadcome for me. That you’d kept your word...” Ari trailed off. “I realised it didn’t matter. Not anymore.”
“Why?” Tom asked her.
She offered him a tremulous, almost hopeful smile. “Because I’d fallen in love with you all over again. I’d fallen in love with you, with Tom Somerset, and I’d forgiven you. And so it didn’t matter that you’d come for me. It didn’t matter, because I love you.”
“Ari,” Tom breathed out. “Ari, please don’t... don’t say these things if you can’t... if you don’t want to be with me...”
Ari stopped his words by kissing him softly. The airport was quiet, lights flashing somewhere in the distance, and Tom’s lips were soft, his exhalation of surprised relief warm against her cheek. When she pulled away again, she cupped his face in her hands. She could hear Corentin’s words from earlier echoing in her head.
Before you say I do, the love and commitment should be there.
“Tom, I can,” she told him, smiling widely. “And I do.”
Tom sat back, blinking in amazement. “Thank you,” he said earnestly. “Thank you for giving me another chance.”
