Page 106

Katie smiled sadly. ‘Because you find yourself in exactly the same situation as with Rowan? Some woman comes along, seemingly not really over a previous intense relationship, and you don’t want to get involved?’

‘That’s just it. I do want to get involved. I very much want to get involved with you, but the timing and the gulf in the way we live – it’s crazy. You live in London; I live up here. You have a busy, exciting city life and I live such a quiet existence, alone here on an island.’

‘Not quite,’ she said, smiling. ‘You have Pongo and Greg and your neighbours, but I do understand. It’s the wrong time, wrong place for us. We might be the right people but not now.’

He fought the urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her.

‘Hurting you is the last thing I ever want to do,’ she continued. ‘We’re going home tomorrow but I wanted you to know that I really want to be involved. I want to – I want to—’ She let out a cry of frustration. ‘I can’t say what I want to do, because the only thing that can make you trust me is if I go away and convince you that this feeling isn’t going to change.’

He felt he might burst with a mixture of joy and despair. ‘I want to believe that this time it will all work. I want to hope.’

‘Me too. So, I’ll walk away tomorrow and then, when the time is right and we’re both not so raw, we’ll see if we want to pick up where we left off.’

He watched her walk away with a piece of his soul, knowing he’d still feel the same yet hardly daring to hope she would.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

‘Where’s Athene?’ Wanda asked, peering out of the sitting-room French windows on the bitter January afternoon. ‘She was meant to be back from the farm by now. You don’t think anything’s happened to her, do you? Farming is such a risky business. I read a statistic the other day. It said agriculture is by far the most dangerous job there is.’

Jess exchanged a glance with Katie. ‘I’m sure Greg is very careful, Wanda, especially when he has … visitors.’

‘I think Athene was hoping to help Greg develop the proposal,’ Katie said.

‘Well, it’s getting dark …’ Wanda’s bottom lip wobbled. ‘And Arlo said you aren’t supposed to use the launch at night.’

‘They’ll be back any moment, I’m sure,’ Jess soothed.

‘Hmm.’ Wanda’s mouth turned upwards and she burst out laughing. ‘Your faces! I couldn’t resist it. I know exactly why Athene’s late and it doesn’t have anything to do with a book about sheep!’

The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of trying to concoct meals that used up all of the leftovers in the fridge, and the cheerless job of packing and tidying up. As Arlo had become a friend to them all, everyone was conscious of leaving the house in an immaculate state.

Wanda was right about one thing: it was dusk when Katie saw the lights of Greg’s boat approach while she was out collecting her thoughts and taking a respite from the depressing sight of packed rucksacks.

She hung back in the shadows of the copse as Athene jumped deftly on to the jetty and secured the rope to the mooring cleat. Greg killed the engine and climbed out to join her. Katie shrank further into the shadows as they exchanged a passionate kiss in the twilight.

Having waved Greg off, Athene practically skipped down the jetty.

‘Athene!’ Katie called and hurried to meet her.

‘Oh. Oh, Katie! You startled me.’

‘Sorry. I was out for a walk and spotted you.’

‘Spotted me snogging Greg?’

Even in the twilight, she could see Athene was flushed and that most of her ponytail had come undone. ‘Your face. You’re like a cat who got the cream.’

Athene patted her messy hair. ‘Am I? Whoops.’ She burst into a grin. ‘If you must know, I’ve just had revenge sex!’

Katie gasped; then she covered her mouth and took Athene aside. ‘With – with—’

‘Greg, yes. And wow. He is – but you don’t need to know. The point is I have had revenge sex and it’s the first time. Come to think of it, I haven’t had any kind of sex for an embarrassingly long time. I was worried I’d forgotten how but Greg hadn’t so that was good.’

Katie had to stem a snort of laughter. ‘This “revenge sex”. I presume you mean the revenge is against Guy.’

‘Of course, not that he will ever know and he probably wouldn’t give a toss if he did. But I do, and believe me, revenge was very sweet indeed.’

Athene sighed with pleasure and Katie found herself grinning from ear to ear. It was wonderful to see her friend so happy, no matter how temporary a fix Greg was. She hoped he wasn’t.