“I’m sorry too,” Gaby said. “I loved dancing with you, Peter.”
She held his gaze as she reached across the table and squeezed his hand, her expression open and candid.
So, he hadn’t imagined it. She’d felt it too.
“I could’ve danced with you all night, Gaby,” he said. “Having you in my arms brought everything back from when we were kids.”
She dipped her gaze, her smile almost shy. “We had some amazing times together back then.”
“When I kissed you last night…” He weighed up whether to say it, but he was in this now and saw no point in holding back. “It made me realise how great we were together. How much I loved you.”
She let out a quick breath. “I loved you too, Peter. You were my first love.”
“You’re the only one I’veeverloved.”
Hedefinitelydidn’t mean to say that. The words just tumbled out in all their raw honesty.
Gaby looked up from her wine glass, her eyes wide. “Really?”
He nodded. No point denying it now. “Yes, really. That summer we shared was the best time of my entire life. I always thought that if that’s what love felt like when I was eighteen, then it would only get better once I was older. But I never felt anything like that again.”
Until now. He caught the words before they escaped. His confessions were already taking him to the brink of disaster judging by the look on Gaby’s face.
“You don’t mean that,” Gaby said.
“I do.”
“But you’ve had relationships since we were together, haven’t you?”
“Plenty. But none of them meant what ours did. And I’ve never been in love again. Not even close.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I… I… are yousure?”
Her astonished question made him laugh softly. “Pretty sure. Look, I don’t want you to think I’ve been pining for you all these years, Gaby. That would be creepy and sad. We went our separate ways and I lived my life and I’ve enjoyed relationships that meant a lot to me. But none of those relationships were ever enough to go the distance. When we crossed paths again last weekend, I started thinking about what we had together when we were teenagers and realised I never felt that way again.”
Gaby ran a finger around her wine glass, thinking about what he’d said. “I’ve been remembering those days, too. They meant a lot to me, Peter. When I think about them now, I realise what we had was so special and we were lucky to find each other. Well, what I mean is that I was the lucky one. You turned that summer into some of the best days of my life.”
“Considering the life you’ve led since then and the places you’ve lived, that means a lot to me, Gaby.”
“No, you don’t understand. When I arrived at my aunt’s at the start of that summer, I was so unhappy. My parents’ endless battles with each other had taken a toll and made us all miserable. All I’d wanted to do was escape from them both and have some peace at last before I started university. But when I met you, you turned that summer into something magical.”
She held his gaze as she spoke. He remembered how unhappy she’d been at the start of that summer, remembered their conversations when she’d opened up about her parents’calamitous marriage, remembered how much he wanted to make her smile just to see the light in her eyes.
“It was easy to fall in love with you, Peter, because you made that summer so magical and so wonderful,” Gaby said. “I don’t think I knew how to explain it all those years ago. I told you I loved you back then, but it was only later I understood the depths of what I felt for you and how you made me feel.”
She blushed and sipped her wine. “Sorry, that’s too much.”
“It’s not.” He took her hand across the table because he didn’t want her to stop talking, didn’t want to lose this connection between them. “We used to tell each other we were meant to be together that summer and we were meant to find each other. I believed it then and I believe it now.”
“You think we were meant to meet again?”
“Yes. I mean, we’re enjoying being together again, aren’t we?”
Gaby nodded. “We are.”
“Then it was meant to happen.”
“For what reason?”
