Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Beth woke with the vivid memory of a kiss. Of kisses. Not dream kisses, not a figment of her imagination, but real ones. Warm, tender, still tingling on her lips.
Then came the panic. She sat upright in bed, hair sticking out like a well-used toilet brush.
‘Oh God. Oh … God.’
Downstairs, the faint sounds of the pub waking filtered through the floor: Ed clattering glasses, the coffee machine sputtering to life, Angela whistling as she restocked the bar. And another voice. Not one she usually heard in the morning.
Beth pressed both hands to her face. She had kissed Kieran. Properly. And he had kissed her back.
A flutter of joy skittered through her, immediately chased down by dread. What if he regrets it? What if I misread things? What if I said something ridiculous? What if Gigi—
‘Morning, sunshine.’
She screamed. Gigi was lounging against her wardrobe in a silver kimono and fluffy slippers, sipping from a mug labelled Wish You Were Here.
‘You nearly gave me a heart attack!’
‘You’re giving me grey hairs, sweetheart. But in a sexy, distinguished way.’ He ran a hand through his immaculately groomed bouffant. ‘I take it last night went well?’
Beth scrambled for her dressing gown. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Which means you absolutely want to talk about it. Come on, Uncle Gigi needs the gossip.’
‘You are not my uncle.’
Gigi flopped on her bed, glitter puffing off him as if he’d been rolling in craft supplies.
‘Fine, we’ll skip to the highlights. Number one: you kissed him. Number two: he kissed you back. Number three: nobody spontaneously combusted, which frankly is a win, given your track record.’
She glared. ‘Gigi, this is serious.’
‘Darling, love always is.’ He softened, slipping into that rare mode where he sounded older than the universe. ‘What’s bothering you? Apart from the obvious: fear of happiness, emotional intimacy, and communicating your needs to an attractive man?’
Beth groaned. ‘All of it.’
Footsteps sounded on the stairs – light, bouncy, familiar.
Gigi wriggled his eyebrows. ‘Speak of the techie.’ His form dissolved into a shimmer of turquoise smoke.
A knock. ‘Beth?’ Kieran’s voice: nervous, hopeful. ‘Are you, um, awake?’
Her stomach somersaulted. She pulled herself together and opened the door just enough to peek out.
There he stood, a vision of messy hair and kind eyes that made something in her chest melt. ‘Hi,’ he said.
Just a word. But it hit her like a pulse of light.
‘Hi.’
He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I didn’t want to assume anything after last night. So I popped home while you slept to feed Prom. And now I’m back. Ed raised his eyebrows, but in a good way.’
Beth felt herself blush. ‘You’re not assuming wrong.’
‘That’s a relief,’ he said with a smile.
For a moment they simply looked at one another, a fragile new world forming in the quiet.
‘Do you want to go for a walk?’ he asked. ‘I know Ed’s gearing up for a full Scottish breakfast and I thought … maybe some fresh air? You and me?’
Beth hesitated, but only for a second. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’d like that.’
Behind her, the faintest whisper of a voice curled through the air, smug and satisfied.
A wish for courage granted, sweetheart.