Chapter 33 #2
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Bailey asked, stepping closer and wrapping a sympathetic arm around my shoulder before she pulled me to her, making that guilt rise inside ten times over. “Not that it matters.” She exhaled softly. “I’m just so proud of you.”
Her words had me looking up at her sharply, only to see the small smile on her face grow into a grin, and the sparkle in her gaze shine back at me.
“Proud?”
Rhea’s arm came around my other shoulder as her smile erupted and she whispered in my ear, “I’d have been so pissed if you’d gone back to England without going for it with him at least once. Sounds like you definitely went there more than once, too, you naughty girl.”
I glanced between the two of them, confused. “You’re not mad at me?”
Bailey chuckled. “You’re our friend, Phoebe Elisa Turner. Why on earth would we be mad at you?”
“I lied to you. I kept it a secret. I…”
“Oh, please. Just how thick do you think we are? Of course, we’ve had our suspicions. There are only so many walks you’d willingly go on with someone you apparently can’t stand.” She smirked.
I sighed, my attention slowly drifting to Henry, who stood there staring at his feet, his palm worrying the back of his neck as though he could somehow scrub away all the shame he clearly felt.
“Go to him.” Bailey squeezed my shoulder before stepping away. Rhea did the same. “We’ll talk later.”
“What about Andy?”
Bailey’s expression hardened. “He’s mine to deal with now.”
With a gentle shove in the back from Rhea, I found myself drifting away from the two of them until only Henry was in my sights.
That body of his, which I’d already spent so many hours worshipping, hunched over as though the weight of the world rested on his back, pushing him down.
The defensive wall he put up in front of the world had crumbled, leaving behind a broken shell of a man who’d admitted so many things he probably only ever wanted to keep to himself.
She fucking matters, okay.
“Henry.” I placed a hand on his bicep, making him flinch before he righted himself and tilted his head in my direction.
When our eyes met, the sadness within his told me everything his voice couldn’t. He had regrets. I could only hope our time together wasn’t one of them.
I ran my hand down his arm. “You okay?”
“Are you? ’
Of course, his main concern had been me. I’d slowly learnt over our time together that the man never put himself first. “That depends on your answer.”
“Same.”
“You didn’t have to do that, you know. Defend me that way.”
His brows creased. “You’re worth defending.”
“Am I worth risking a friendship for?”
“You tell me.”
“He’s your family, Henry. And I’m… I’m…”
“Temporary? Yeah. I remember.”
It was my turn to scowl at the somewhat hurt expression on his face. “You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“No? How did you mean it?”
She fucking matters.
If only I’d known that before Andy blew everything apart. Before I’d said all the wrong things to try make Henry’s life right again.
Glancing behind me, I saw Andy and Jace sitting on the netting, their backs to us while Andy no doubt tried to paint Henry and me as the bad guys in this whole, sorry situation.
Bailey and Rhea were huddled together in the seating area, their soft laughter and easy conversation reminding me that they held no hatred towards me after finding out what I’d done.
That’s when I knew it wasn’t an ‘us’ issue. This had nothing to do with Henry and me.
This all came down to Henry and Andy, and I refused to let Andy deny me of what mattered in the here and now in my world.
Turning back, I reached up to press my palms against Henry’s cheeks, watching as his lips parted and he sucked in a tiny breath, unable to stop himself from glancing over my shoulder to make sure Andy couldn’t see.
“Look at me,” I urged him.
He did, slowly, and all the memories of our time together on this island flitted through my mind, reminding me of the way those eyes could make me feel with nothing but a moment of their attention.
With everything inside me, I wanted this man.
Needed him at this point. That connection we’d built together in private made me want to hold him and care for him and protect him and adore him and worship him in public.
I wanted to do all of it, everything I shouldn’t, and I didn’t care who saw anymore or who even cared.
This thing between us had come alive when we’d both been dead, and I wasn’t about to apologise for feeling reborn.
We were two broken people enjoying putting each other back together, and I didn’t want that to end right here.
“I had one rule on this holiday, Henry. One. No men. Remember? Then along you came, flipping everything on its head.”
He blinked once, and his nostrils flared as he inhaled a deep breath only to release it slowly.
“I’m not the girl who goes after what she wants.
Never really have been. But I think I wanted you the first time I laid eyes on you.
Even when trying to fight it, knowing I could never get over you if I ever got under you, I still had to have this.
I had to experience us .” I ran my thumbs over his cheeks, rising up on my toes.
“When I say I’m temporary in your life, it's because I’m honouring the deal we made. Not because it’s what I want.”
“What do you want?” he asked carefully.
“Right now? Only you. You’ve changed everything. And if we end right here, right now, I’ll have to find a way to be okay with that, because at least I got to have you. At least I got to be yours for a while.”
His gaze drifted over my shoulder once more to take in those who opposed us, and I waited for him to draw back. To pull away and remove himself from what we’d become to return to who he used to be.
But when he stared back down at me, I saw the change in his expression and the way his shoulders relaxed, before he placed his hands on my hips and squeezed. “We’ve still got time.”
“Time?”
He lowered his forehead to mine, closed his eyes and breathed me in. “I don’t care what anyone says anymore. It only has to make sense to us.”
“Us…” Two simple letters sounded like an intricate promise.
“Let him see. Let them all see how much I want you. If I’m going to be crucified for it anyway, I may as well go out in style.”
Then Henry kissed me in front of everyone.
He kissed me, not caring who saw, who commented, or who didn’t want this moment of happiness for us.
He kissed me as though we were the only two people at sea, as though I was the last person on Earth who could give him everything he’d ever dreamed of, and I allowed myself to sink into him, letting myself go, letting myself fall.
Even though the truth was…
I’d already fallen as hard and fast as I ever could.
Henry Cohen had somehow gotten into my veins and flowed through me now, a part of my being I couldn’t bear to think about removing, even if the day of our goodbye still laid ahead, drawing closer with every beat of my heart.
Time.
I’d taken it for granted with him, and now we were running out.
I couldn’t afford to waste another second.