Shipwrecked with Mr. Wrong - By Nikki Logan Page 0,66
conversation with Justin in her head. She spoke of her great love for him, her sorrow that he was gone and her great comfort that he was with his father. She spoke of a day, maybe a long time away, when they would see each other again.
Then, wiping the tears from her face, she turned her thoughts to Nate. Her best friend as well as her husband and probably more of a success at one than the other. She told him that she’d loved him dearly and felt loved in return. She told him that maybe he hadn’t been the great love of her life, just the first. She begged his understanding and, somehow, across the massive expanse of sky, knew that she had it.
She blew a kiss to them both and gently tossed the wreath into the sea. The boat and the wreath parted company quickly. It instantly reminded Honor of that other day at sea, when the waves had come between them, but this time it brought no pain, or only a little. Instead, it brought closure. The elemental wildness of the pitching waves was a fitting tomb for four years of pain. She watched the wreath drift away until it sank beneath the icy waves.
Everything came full circle in that moment.
She cleared her throat and turned her back on the past four years.
Turned to her future.
Rob sat, pensive, further up the boat, giving her the space she needed. His face was pale and he rubbed his hands up and down his board shorts. Honor immediately recognised his anxiety and went to stand before him.
He stood too and searched her face. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Good. Better.’ She blinked and the world seemed to get brighter, more colourful, all around her. She frowned. ‘Back.’
His shoulders slumped a little and he sucked in a breath. He walked her backwards until her calves bumped into the expensive leather of his seats. She sank down onto a cushion and he sat next to her. ‘Okay. There’s a few things you need to know...’
She swallowed. He did too.
‘I’ve pulled out of the family firm.’
Honor’s eyebrows shot up. Not what she was expecting. ‘When? Why?’
‘Pretty much as soon as I got back to Cocos. I thought a lot about what you said about me not living authentically in those last few days. I’ve been hiding what I love—who I am—from most of the people in my world. I’ve had one foot in each camp and that’s stopped me fitting in either one. I needed to decide which world I belonged to and give myself one hundred per cent. It was time to pee or get off the pot.’
A pang of memory bit. But it was warm. That phrase had been one of her mother’s favourites. ‘And you picked shipwrecks?’
He shook his dark head. ‘I picked you.’
Her eyes flared.
‘I’ve spent the last month on the phone to brokers seeing if I can track down an investment that will let me chase shipwrecks for a living. For a lifetime.’
Honor’s voice croaked past her dry throat. ‘And did you?’
‘Two in my price range. But neither of them were any good if you couldn’t see yourself standing on a boat next to me.’
A ball of shock slid up into her throat.
‘You and shipwrecks go hand in hand in my mind, Honor. It wasn’t hard for me to separate my passion for maritime archaeology from my lack of passion for property development. But I couldn’t for the life of me think about shipwrecks without seeing you. And I knew that the lifestyle I need to lead to pursue my passion wouldn’t fit with the woman I left on that island.’
She frowned. ‘Then you should choose shipwrecks.’
‘It’s not that simple.’
She leaned forward and grabbed his hand. ‘It is that simple, Rob. You can’t throw away your dream the moment you’ve finally achieved it. Not for me.’
‘I wouldn’t be throwing it away. I’d be choosing between dreams.’
But... The ocean seemed to spin around her.
‘I spent a whole lot of time on that island apologising for the way I feel. It took me a couple of weeks to realise that loving you was not my failing. It was my salvation. It helped me to realise a whole bunch of things about my life. It made me think that maybe love can endure. With the right person.’
Her head fell back with the shock of his words and her stomach clenched hard. Love...
‘I’m no masochist, Honor. I will love you whether or not you