But it also reminded her that Peter was no longer the teenage boy he’d once been. He was a man now and he’d learned a few things since their last encounter. The way his lips moved over hers and the way his hand caught her waist and held her body tight against his caused every thought inside her head to simply vanish without trace.
When Peter swept one last kiss across her mouth and stepped back, Gaby had to make a conscious effort to open her eyes and breathe and not melt into a pathetic puddle on the ground.
Their gazes met and Gaby saw her own surprise and astonishment and amusement reflected in Peter’s eyes. Still holding hands, they laughed softly, both bewildered and pleased with themselves and quite lost in the unexpected moment they’d just shared.
“Okay then,” Peter said on a low chuckle. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at six.”
“All right.”
He squeezed her hand again and brushed another kiss across her lips before smiling and returning to his car. By some miracle, Gaby found her key inside her bag even though her hands were shaking so much it was a wonder she didn’t upend the entire contents as she searched for it.
Peter waited until she’d waved goodnight and stepped inside the house before he drove off. As she closed the door behind her, she was still seeing stars.
Sagging against the door, Gaby was relieved the quiet house meant her aunt wasn’t yet home from visiting her friends. Gaby needed a minute to pull herself together after that epic kiss on the doorstep.
She closed her eyes and relived the moment Peter’s lips had touched hers, feeling every nerve ending in her body light up all over again.
A kiss like that changed everything about their plans to meet again tomorrow night. So far, their time together had been friendly and decidedly—no,deliberately—non-romantic.
But after that searing kiss? They were in new territory now. No longer just old friends catching up, but old lovers reanimating a scorching summer love affair.
Peter had made his intentions clear, and when Gaby stepped into his embrace on the doorstep tonight, she’d made her intentions clear, too.
Gaby made a decision. She wouldn’t overthink any of this.
They were just two people remembering how much they’d once meant to each other and reliving the passionate moments they’d shared long ago. And once they’d done that, they’d go their separate ways.
If she thought about it like that, then maybe she could actually enjoy whatever might come next.
So much for tonight being the last time they’d see each other. Gaby wondered if she’d truly believed that she could’ve said goodbye to Peter tonight and drawn a line in the sand of their brief reconnection.
After the evening spent at his parents’ house and with his family, and in the wake of the wild thoughts unleashed as a result of watching the Bailey clan spend time together, she now knew she’d been kidding herself about walking away and never looking back.
Peter wanted more time with her. She wanted more time with him. What could be wrong with that?
Before her mind offered answers to that question which she might not like, she hung up her coat and turned on the living room lamps to make the place welcoming for her aunt’s return and prepared tea things in the kitchen and stayed busy, because staying busy stopped her mind from conjuring up those daydreams she’d had tonight when she’d foolishly imagined a future with Peter at the heart of it.
16
“I feelterrible for going out again and leaving you, Aunt Jill,” Gaby said the following evening as she waited for Peter to arrive.
Jill looked up from the newspaper she was reading, a wry smile on her face. “I don’t believe that’s true. You can’t possibly feel terrible when you look as excited as you do right now, my dear.”
Gaby blushed, which only made her aunt’s smile widen.
“I’m glad you and Peter are going out again,” Jill said. “It’s lovely. You obviously like spending time together and you won’t be here much longer so you might as well enjoy it while you can. And if you weren’t going out tonight, you’d just have to hang around here and put up with me and my friends playing cards all evening, which I doubt is your idea of fun.”
When Jill had come home last night after spending a much-needed evening out of the house, she’d told Gaby that her friends had invited themselves round the following evening to play cards as part of their on-going campaign to keep her spirits up while she continued to recover from her surgery. Knowing that her aunt had plans to pass the evening made Gaby feel a little better about going out again with Peter.
Still, she did genuinely feel quite terrible for abandoning Jill, even if her aunt refused to accept that description. Going out and socialising when she was supposed to keeping her aunt company felt like a betrayal of the entire reason she’d come here in the first place.
Or perhaps she was just trying make herself feel bad for being so excited about spending more time with Peter.
She hadn’t told her aunt about the kiss they’d shared. Judging by the knowing look on the older woman’s face, she had a feeling Jill might have already worked it out for herself. Whenever Gaby caught her own reflection in the mirror, she had a dreamy punch-drunk expression which probably gave the entire game away.
The busy day she’d spent had at least stopped her thinking about Peter and the electrifying kiss they’d shared.
Gaby had used the morning to work on chores around the house for her aunt and prepare some freeze-ahead batch-cooking to keep her supplies topped up once Gaby left next week. Jill’s mobility was improving by the day but Gaby didn’t want her spending too long on her feet without good reason, and if there were plenty of delicious meals waiting in the freezer it would delay her return to routine cooking tasks. Adding to the stock of frozen meals that her aunt had already cooked ahead of time made Gaby feel like she was making a useful contribution to Jill’s wellbeing over the next few weeks.
