A Perfect Cornish Escape by Phillipa Ashley Page 0,125
moving back to London? If I get it.’
‘You know you’ll get it, Dirk. They’d be crazy to turn you down.’
‘You turned me down.’
‘You didn’t ask me,’ she said. ‘You refused to ask me to stay.’
‘Well, I am now. I’m asking you, if I get this job – and even if I don’t – will you let me back into your life? Not in the half-arsed way we were going about it in Porthmellow, but properly. Like grown-up people do. Committed people.’
‘We’d have to be committed to do this,’ she said lightly, but Dirk was unsmiling.
‘Tiff, be serious for once – take off the armour and answer the question. God knows, that’s what you always want from other people, isn’t it? I’m here telling you that I love you and I want us to be together and I’m prepared – happy – to do whatever it takes to make sure that happens.’
‘You have no idea how much I want this to work, but I can’t ask you to do this for me, make these big changes in your life.’
‘What if I want to? We can work it out. I like Porthmellow but I’m not wedded to it in the way some of the crew are. Before things went wrong with Amira, I loved London and I still miss it. You’ve reminded me of what I enjoyed about it: the buzz, the vibrancy, the unpredictability.’ He smiled. ‘I’ve got a mate who’s going to work in the States for a year and he says I can have his flat. It’s on the river.’
Tiff was overwhelmed that he would make such a sacrifice for her. ‘How can I deprive Porthmellow of one of its finest?’
He burst out laughing. ‘I’ll miss my friends and neighbours, but there’s a few in town who’ll be glad to see the back of me and my moods. No more Mr Dirk ’n’ Stormy – I know what they call me.’ He looked down at her. ‘They’ll survive, but I’m not sure I will without you.’
‘M—’ A strangled squeak came out.
‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ he asked, doubt creeping into his voice. ‘Have I got this badly wrong? I can withdraw my application.’
‘No!’ She hadn’t meant to say it so loudly. ‘No. I’m … simply lost for words.’
‘That’ll be a first.’
And trying not to cry, she thought. Trying very hard and failing.
She didn’t have an answer but he did. He kissed her gently, almost tentatively, a kiss that showed her he had no idea of what her verdict would be.
‘Is it too much?’ he murmured, holding her around the waist.
She shook her head. ‘No one’s ever done anything like this for me before. No one has ever offered to give up so much for my sake. I can’t quite handle it.’
‘Then let it be a first. Let it happen and see where it takes us. After all,’ he said with a gleam in his eye, ‘we can always change our minds.’
‘No. That’s just it. I won’t want to change my mind if you do this and come to London with me. I won’t want you to change your mind.’ There she’d said it: opened herself up completely to this man she’d never sought out, never expected to find at the end of England, in that tiny quirky town.
‘Then, I promise I won’t change my mind if you don’t.’ He crossed his heart.
‘How can you know that?’ she said.
‘My good opinion once lost is lost forever. Didn’t Darcy say that?’
Tiff laughed, carried away on a tide of euphoria. ‘You said Darcy was an arse.’
‘In some ways. Not in others. He was able to admit he was wrong and grovel, I’ll give him that.’
‘True.’
‘I’ll take the job then and, if I don’t get it, I’ll keep looking and applying until I do. We have that much in common. We’re both stubborn, and if we want something, we carry on with bloody-minded determination until we get it.’
She laughed. ‘We’ll drive each other insane,’ she said, as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
‘I hope so because personally I couldn’t live with someone safe and steady. I’m not cut out for peace and harmony. I like the excitement. I also happen to love you.’
She sighed. ‘I suppose there’s no point denying I feel the same.’
‘None at all,’ he said, holding her tightly. ‘None whatsoever.’
Epilogue
The scent of the sea and the cries of choughs filled the air as Marina walked along the path towards the lookout station. Russet bracken brushed