25
“Carole!I was looking everywhere for you,” Tom said when he reached her.
“I was looking for you, too,” Carole said, giving a breezy laugh to cover her mounting nerves.
“It’s busy in there.” He nodded back towards the marquee. “We must’ve kept passing each other without realising it.”
“Are you heading home?”
Tom nodded again and they fell into step together but had barely made it a few metres before he paused once more.
“Wait,” he said. “There’s something I need to say, and if I don’t say it right now…”
He trailed off, his expression an odd mix of anticipation and… fear?
As she looked at him, she felt awhooshof déjà vu hit her again, the same thing she’d felt right before they’d walked out onto the runway together for the vintage fashion show.
And, just as before, it made her think not of the past but of the future, and of some version of herself that might be waiting out there in that mysterious future.
Waiting for her and for the choice she was about to make in this moment, right now.
None of those thoughts made any sense, but they raced through her head in a split second, filling her mind with… dazzling possibilities she could scarcely understand.
“Carole,” Tom said. “I can’t stop thinking about us. I can’t stop thinking about our kiss last weekend. And about how much I want to kiss you again.”
Carole’s breath caught at his words and the way his gaze held hers. All signs of nerves or fear had now vanished from his face.
“I know you said that kiss was a mistake. But it wasn’t. Iknowit wasn’t. And I think you know it, too.”
“Tom, listen…” She had no idea what she wanted to say, only that she wanted to saysomething, had to say something in response to his words that had left her completely undone.
But before she could assemble something approximating rational thought, Tom had held up his hands and was talking again.
“Please, let me just say this, because Ineedto say it.” He blew out a long breath. “I know you said you aren’t interested in getting involved with someone because you’ve just come out of a long relationship. I get that. And I totally get why you don’t want to become involved with the guy who lives next door because if things go bad, it’d be awkward.”
His expression shifted as hope filled his eyes.
“But maybe thingswouldn’tgo bad,” he said. “Maybe things would be… amazing.”
Yes, Carole thought,maybe they would be amazing.
She tried to say the words, not just think them, but her brain was frozen in the face of Tom’s intensity.
“So, here’s what I was thinking,” he continued. “We should… date each other. Just date each other and see what happens. We’re grown-ups and we’re both sensible people, and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll promise not to be jerks to each other.”
“Tom—”
“And if it turns out that it doesn’t work out and it also turns out that we’re not the sensible grown-ups I think we are, then… I’ll move.”
Carole stared for a long beat, trying to process what he’d just said. “What?”
“I’ll move. I’ll move away from Foxglove Street. I’ll move away from Hamblehurst, if that’s what’s needed. I’ll move, so you won’t have to be stuck living next-door to someone you don’t want to see.”
She searched his face and realised he was completely serious. He’d thought about this, thought about how to deal with her objections to them getting together, thought about how to convince her to set those objections aside.
“You’re joking, right?” she said, because those were the only words she could find.
“I’m completely serious. If that’s what it takes to convince you to go out with me and give us a chance, then, yes, I’m completely serious. I promise I’ll move if we break up and you decide you hate me and can’t bear the sight of me anymore. I’ll pack my bags and sell my house and walk off into the sunset and that will be that.”
