Chapter 59
59
‘So…’
Charlotte’s heart, already slightly elevated from the incline through the woods, sped up as Tristan broke the not-entirely-comfortable silence between them.
‘So?’ Charlotte echoed. She glanced ahead of them, to ensure that Comet wasn’t likely to go dashing off in pursuit of any local wildlife, or to greet other walkers in his usual enthusiastic way, before pausing to catch her breath and meet Tristan’s gaze.
‘I’m sorry about Thea,’ Tristan said. ‘You were absolutely on the nail when you said she had no right to interfere. Sometimes, though, she just can’t help herself.’
Charlotte shook her head. ‘To be fair to Thea, she was right to get irritated by that text. It was a little, er, to the point , and was less than you deserved for sending me the Ultron.’
‘It was up to you to choose how you responded to it, not my bloody sister,’ Tristan muttered. ‘She can’t help sticking her oar in, sometimes, and I’m just sorry you were on the end of it.’
‘That’s as may be, but I should have replied a little more sensitively.’ Charlotte paused by the stump of a newly felled pine tree. Its sweet balsam scent seemed to calm her thoughts. She needed to keep her feet on the ground for the next few minutes, at least. ‘That letter you sent, with the telescope… it meant a lot to me that you could be so honest about yourself and your feelings. The reason I didn’t mention it in that text was because I didn’t want to just write off everything you’d said. It felt wrong just to shoot back a WhatsApp, when there was so much else I wanted to tell you.’ She rummaged in the back pocket of her jeans. ‘So much so that, after I got Thea’s call, I finished off a reply of my own that I’d been drafting to you.’ Pulling out an envelope, slightly crumpled from where she’d been sitting on it while she was driving, she handed it to Tristan. ‘You don’t have to read it now,’ she said. ‘Just stick it in your pocket and read it when you’re ready.’
Tristan’s mouth gave a little upward twitch when he saw how crumpled the letter was. Charlotte immediately knew he was thinking back to their first meeting and how scruffy she’d looked. ‘I’d like to read it now if you don’t mind.’
‘Sure.’
Tristan perched on the tree stump. Feeling incredibly awkward, Charlotte searched the immediate vicinity with her eyes for Comet and noticed he was disappearing in the direction of the building site. Determined to give Tristan a couple of minutes’ space to read her letter, she took her time meandering over to Comet.
When she’d located him, she turned back to see Tristan was still sitting on the tree stump, but he’d shifted his gaze from the letter in his hands to where she was. The look on his face, from this distance, was difficult to make out. Drawing closer, she could see that his eyes were fixed on her, and much to her relief, he was smiling.
‘Do you mean it?’ he said gently, as he stood and closed the remaining distance between them.
‘I do.’ Charlotte’s knees, only just recovering from coming face to face on the doorstep with Tristan that afternoon, began to shake again. And when Tristan dipped his head, and she felt his lips, tentatively at first and then with increasing assurance, meeting hers, her knees very nearly gave way altogether. It was just as well he’d slid his arms around her, to give them both some stability on the uneven forest floor, as by the time they broke apart again it was difficult to tell who was trembling more.
‘I’ve missed you,’ Tristan murmured. ‘You’ve no idea how much.’
‘I’ve some idea.’ Charlotte smiled into another kiss. ‘And I think it’s time to press play again on things, don’t you?’
‘Definitely.’ The kisses could have gone on all afternoon, with the odd gently falling copper-burnished leaf fluttering from the beech trees that interspersed the pines in the wood, had Comet not returned with a large stick, and butted Charlotte on the back of her legs with it.
‘Timing, dog,’ Charlotte muttered as she was pushed even closer to Tristan.
‘I don’t know.’ Tristan’s eyes sparkled with amusement and love, never breaking her gaze as he stooped slightly to give the errant Comet a pat. ‘His timing seems pretty perfect to me.’