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Her gaze comes back to me. “I wouldn’t go back to him, even for Millie,” she says simply. “Maybe, a month ago, I might have considered it. Maybe even a week ago. But since you came back, you’ve shown me what it’s like to be with a man who wants me. Who makes me feel loved. And it might be selfish, but I wouldn’t give that up, not even for my daughter.”

My heart swells, but I contain the emotion that makes me want to run around the room with arms flailing. “Before we do anything, we need to tell Jayden about us. I know he and I haven’t spoken for a year, and we don’t have the friendship we once did, but I don’t want you and I to have a relationship without telling him. I feel I owe him that.”

She nods. “Okay.”

“Does that make sense?”

She swallows hard. “Yes. I understand.”

Do I sound callous and heartless, forcing her to confront him? “We can call him together, if you like,” I say.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll do it tomorrow. Is that all right? I need time to think about what I’m going to say.”

My heart sinks a little. Part of me had hoped she’d do it right now. But the important thing is that she does it. “Of course.”

I think about what Bear told me, about seeing Jayden with another woman before he left. The words rest on my lips, ready to fall. I want to tell her. She’d be shocked and upset, but it would crush any remaining feelings she has for him. She deserves to know, doesn’t she?

But that would be spiteful and mean. I’d be doing it for myself, not for her. So I close my mouth and hold the words back, hoping I’m making the right decision.

She sips her champagne, looking out at the park again. “Millie’s important to me,” she says distractedly. “Of course she is. And I love being a mum. But this week has shown me how much I miss being me. Being with you, and the thought of owning the bookshop… it’s given me a new lease of life. I’d forgotten what it was like to do something for myself. Does that sound silly?”

“Not at all.”

Her gaze comes back to me. It slips down me, taking in my bare chest, and my legs where they’re stretched out, making me tingle.

“You make me feel whole again,” she whispers. “Wanted.”

“You are.”

“Desired.”

“All the time.”

Her gaze lifts to mine. “I can’t believe you were going to stop the wedding.”

“I was this close.” I hold up my thumb and forefinger, a few millimetres apart.

“Do you wish you had?”

I give a long sigh, thinking about Jayden’s declaration that he shouldn’t have married her. “Yes and no. I’m sure you’d have still gone ahead with it, but it would have soured the day. And it would have spoiled our friendship. There’s no guarantee it would’ve meant we’d be together. And of course, you have Millie, so it was supposed to go ahead.”

She sighs.

I put down my glass and move closer to her. “But do I wish you hadn’t been seeing Jayden when I met you outside your father’s office? Do I wish I’d stood at the altar beside you, and put my ring on your finger? That we’d spent the last six years together?” My gaze drops to her lips. “I wish that with every cell in my body.”

Her brows draw together. “Me too.”

We both sigh again, and it’s as if all the years of frustration, resentment, and loneliness are dissipating like mist.

She’s here, in front of me, looking so beautiful that it makes me ache. So I slip my hand to the back of her head, my fingers sliding through her silky hair, and hold her there as I lower my lips to hers.

Here and now are what matters. And right here, right now, she’s with me, in my arms.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Vix

We kiss and talk, kiss and talk, as the sun sinks lower in the sky, and the temperature gradually drops. It’s only around eight p.m., but we close the doors and windows before any insects come in and decide we’d be more comfortable in bed.