Page 99 of Italy and Forever

He straightened, studying her in earnest. ‘What?’

‘I mean, if you need to go, then go. I won’t hold you back, but…’ She took another fistful of his jacket, undermining her words entirely. ‘If you weren’t going⁠—’

He dipped his head, struggling to hear – or struggling to understand through the fog of confusion and the joy of holding her.

She took a deep breath and when she spoke again, her voice was tremulous. ‘If you weren’t going, I’d tell you I love you. If you were coming back, I’d promise to wait for you. I accidentally let my feelings get involved, even though I didn’t think there could possibly be anything between us. I still don’t know if there…’

She finished on a hiccough, but she’d been clear enough that the endorphins were surging in his blood and he was weak with elation and relief. His hand closed tightly around hers. ‘You didn’t see what there could be between us?’ he asked, his voice high. ‘Everything.’

She blinked at him, her mouth falling open.

Pressing his forehead to hers, he said, ‘I’ve been trying so hard not to get my hopes up, to let you work us out for yourself. You left it to the last fucking minute, Ginny cariad.’

He dropped his hands to her waist, the casual touch that had always felt like a privilege.

Then he kept talking, mirroring the words back to her. ‘I love you too. Only you. No one else reaches me the way you do. I didn’t think it was possible to feel as close to someone as I do to you.’

‘I—Huh. I wasn’t expecting⁠—’

Ginny’s capacity for speech had reduced to a four-year-old’s and the entire world seemed to be upside down. She’d expected gentleness, probably pity. She’d strung herself so tight before her confession, knowing she couldn’t live with herself if she let him leave without telling him the truth. But she had not prepared herself for hearing him say the words in return – and say them far more beautifully than she had.

She didn’t know where this left them. He was getting on a plane right now and they would have to be pragmatic adults about this at some stage, but since she couldn’t talk or breathe properly anyway, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He responded, quickly turning the kiss deep and slow, fizzing with the sparks that she’d tried to convince herself were only physical. His arms tightened around her waist and he sucked in a quick, tormented breath before kissing her again, harder this time.

She was just congratulating herself on the airport setting as a place where long, fraught kisses wouldn’t be remarked upon, when a cheer rang out, making her jump. Expecting to see a rowdy stag group and get back to the kissing as quickly as possible, she froze when, instead, she found Reshma, Tita, Toni and Kira, with their partners, holding a banner and releasing party poppers at random.

The banner read:

Just tell her you love her!

Ginny dropped her forehead to his chest and Rhys lifted an arm to shield her from their friends, his fingers casually – divinely – on her nape.

‘They don’t get it at all,’ she murmured, realising they’d still be picking her up off the ugly spotty tiles after he went through security.

‘They don’t?’ he asked lightly. Trust him to not have a care in the world. ‘I think it’s pretty good advice.’ He brushed a thumb over her ear and dipped his head to whisper again, ‘I love you.’

It solved nothing, but hearing those words still reordered the contents of her heart.

She turned her head to press a messy kiss to his lips. ‘It’s not that simple, is it, though? You’re leaving for Canada – for good.’ A tear made its way down her cheek.

He caught the drop with his thumb and shook his head, dipping his chin to catch her gaze. ‘I’m not going to Canada.’

The words were so entirely different from the gentle consolation she’d expected that she thought she’d misheard at first. ‘What? We’re literally at the airport. I don’t want to hold you back. I know you need freedom and I’m not asking you to⁠—’

‘Marry me?’

She blinked. ‘That was just finishing my sentence, right?’ she asked.

A quiet smile lit his face. ‘Yep.’ His answer disagreed with his expression in a way that made Ginny’s breath catch. ‘We can’t get married yet. There aren’t enough other photographers on the books.’

He took her hand, slipping his fingers through hers, and winked at her.

Was he thinking some long-distance kind of thing? She’d do that if she had to. ‘How cold is it in Canada?’ she asked thoughtfully.

‘Ginny, I won’t go to Canada.’

‘But—’

‘The truth is, I accepted the job when I didn’t see another way forward. It wasn’t that I wanted to leave. I’ve got my life mostly back on track since the accident, but I was stagnating, work drying up, seeing nothing but you when I was in Weymouth.’