you left I didn’t know what to do. After Luc, my mother was drinking more and more. Then there were other… circumstances I felt I could not control. I had to try and pick myself up. I had to realise what was important and how to go forward.’
Emma managed a nod. His words were making her ache to reach out for him but she held back. It wasn’t right to comfort him.
‘I went to the local semi-professional team and I earned a place in the team. It was starting from the bottom but I needed to do that. Wherever it took me, if it took me anywhere at all, I had to make it because I’d worked hard and honestly. Money can sometimes fall into your lap but money earned the right way is the only type worth having,’ he told her.
‘And you have a girlfriend.’ She didn’t know why that particular sentence had fallen out of her mouth.
‘I suppose,’ he responded with a shrug.
‘What does that mean?’
‘Madeleine and I… we don’t have the right sort of relationship. It isn’t the type of relationship I want. Do you remember?’
Did she remember? Of course she did. She could deny it all she liked but she remembered every detail of every moment they’d spent together.
‘Then why be together?’
‘Why are you with that man?’
‘That man? His name’s Chris. I’m with Chris because…’ She had to stop. The truth was, she couldn’t give him an answer. This was ridiculous. Why was she with Chris? Were they good together? Not especially. They were very different but they managed to pull off the family unit when they went out with Dominic. But that shouldn’t be the answer. She should be saying something much more appropriate. Like he was her soul mate.
‘He’s kind. He’s hard-working and he loves Dominic. Anyway, I don’t need to justify how I’m living my life to you,’ she snapped.
‘You ask me about Madeleine and I told you the truth. I would believe it if you tell me you love this man, but you do not say that and I do not see it in your eyes,’ Guy told her.
‘It’s none of your business what I feel for him.’ She looked at the tablecloth and started to pick at one of the stitches on the hem.
‘I want to see you,’ Guy continued.
‘What are you talking about? I came here tonight to…’ She paused, facing him.
‘To what?’
The air was so charged she couldn’t breathe. All she could see were his green eyes, looking at her, beckoning her back to a time when she didn’t know better. A time when she felt free, young, wrapped up in a dream of love and happy-ever-afters. She opened her mouth to speak but shut it again. She didn’t know what to say.
‘I know things are complicated, Emma. But the moment I saw you again… My feelings are the same. I know what you think I did to you… to us… but I’m asking for another chance.’
This couldn’t be happening. All those years alone with Dominic. Struggling to get by. Begging the university to defer her place. Getting the teaching job she’d always wanted. Learning to give her heart again. And here he was, the man that broke her in so many ways, asking for a second chance. He was too late… wasn’t he?
‘Remember the story you read to me? Those two people who loved each other so much. She married someone else and he married someone else and…’
‘Don’t romanticise it. We’re not Cathy and Heathcliff.’
‘OK, maybe that was a stupid thing to say. I am trying to say how I feel but—’
‘The lemon sole, madam and the chicken tagine, sir,’ the waiter interrupted.
‘Thank you. Could I please have a glass of water?’ Emma asked. Her throat being dry was the least of her worries. Her heart was on fire.
Chapter Twenty-Three
August 2005
‘No more food! I’m so full.’ She moved her chair back from the table a little and held her hands over her bloated stomach.
‘Chocolat,’ Guy stated. He held up a large, round box filled with chocolates.
‘Goodness, are they truffles? They must have cost a bit,’ she said.
‘Sometimes, I get… cadeaux… for doing good job.’ He stood up. He shook out a blanket and laid it on the ground between two trees.
‘Chocolate on the ground?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Nothing. It’s nice.’ She stood up, moved to where the blanket was positioned, throwing herself down. She stretched her arms out behind her feeling like a satisfied cat, warm and content. He sat down beside