from Tom this morning.’ She paused for a second, then smiled to reassure him. ‘The last results came back as negative. It was a false alarm—he just has a bad head cold.’
She watched Simon’s shoulders slump and relax, and then without hesitation he simply stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her in a delicious welcoming embrace of such love and warmth that it disarmed her. Every good intention she’d had of simply walking away from him fled out of the window.
‘I’m so pleased for you … But did you say Molly was waiting? Does that mean you are heading out on your field trips?’
She nodded, incapable of speech.
His hand came up and pressed her head closer into his embrace. He drew her into the room and out of the empty corridor.
‘Oh, Katie,’ he whispered as his cheek moved against hers, filling her with the smell of him and hotel shower gel.
Kate rested her head on his shoulder. If she was ever going to say it, then this was the time to do it. ‘The other night,’ she whispered into his shirt, ‘at the beach. When I told you that I had made my own way so far and didn’t need anyone. That wasn’t even close to being true.’
He turned his head just enough so that she could see the dust on his eyelashes and the huge dark pupils at the centre of the grey eyes which had entranced her from the first moment she had seen them all those years ago in the lecture theatre at university. The words she was about to say froze on her lips.
‘I know. This is hard on both of us,’ he said, his voice intense, almost a harsh whisper. ‘Can I at least talk you into staying until my coronation?’
Kate slowly shook her head, and braved a closed-mouth smile before replying. ‘Promotion will mean that I can work full-time from home. I will be there to make Gemma’s breakfast and spend every evening and weekend with her. Tom has done an amazing job over these last few years when I have been travelling, and he has never once complained, but he is due to retire next year and is ready for a rest. It’s my turn, and I want to be there—no matter what his test results say.’
‘I understand. You have to be there for Gemma and your dad. But the last few days have shown me that we have something amazing here, Katie—and don’t even try to deny it. We could be happy together, and that usually does not come around twice.’
His fingers were on her forehead now, stroking her hair back from her face, and the pleasure was so heavenly that she could have died with the wonder of it. She longed for him to keep going. But she couldn’t—not when she was so close to the knife-edge between leaving and staying. This time she had to be the strong one.
‘You’re right. I am still as crazy about you as I ever was. But things are so different now, Simon. You have your responsibilities to your people. I have my sister to think about, and we come as a two-for-the-price-of-one package deal. If I moved here so would Gemma, and we both know that would never work. It has taken years for us to find a perfect school for the deaf, and Gemma loves it there. Moving her away from her friends and studies at this stage would be way too traumatic. She needs that special help and I promised her that it was all going to be okay.’
He started to protest. ‘No.’ She pressed a fingertip to his lips. ‘Please don’t make it even worse. It is better for me to go with the knowledge that we still care about each other. That’s something we can take with us wherever we go.’
His hands cupped her face as he leant in and kissed her with such gentleness and tenderness that she almost lost her nerve. It was if he was pouring every special memory of their life together into one kiss, and she sank into it with all of her heart.
It was the most wonderful kiss she had ever received, and she knew that she would never forget it.
And then her cell phone rang, and she pulled back and smiled, fighting off the tears as his fingers slid away from her skin, probably for the last time.
‘That’s probably Molly with my transport. She’s arranged for me to spend two days doing