Chapter 41
The sun was a ball of melting fire hovering above the horizon. Before long it would sink into the water, and they were in prime position, well placed to witness it happening from their table on the front line of the wide terrace overlooking the lagoon.
It had been warm enough out here for Fen to be fine in her sleeveless dress during dinner, but the temperature was starting to drop; it would make sense to nip back to her room now and pick up her cardigan, rather than risk missing the spectacular setting of the sun.
As soon as Jamie returned from his visit to the bathroom she would do it.
A minute later, he was back, but before she had a chance to open her mouth, he said in a low voice, ‘Don’t turn around whatever you do. They’ve just come up and ordered drinks. They’re sitting at the back of the terrace. If Bridget catches your eye, she might ask if she can join us.’
‘Right, got it.’
‘We need to look as if we don’t want to be disturbed.’
He was leaning sideways, pulling his chair closer, practically murmuring the words into her ear. Giving a tiny shiver of delight, Fen whispered stoically, ‘Do what you have to do,’ and really hoped it would involve more stroking of the back of her neck.
He said, ‘You’re being very brave.’
She nodded slowly. See? This is my neck, right here. ‘I know.’
OK, so she definitely wasn’t going to go back to her room to pick up her cardigan now.
The next twenty minutes had to rank among the very best of her life.
Desperate not to break the spell, neither of them turned around for even a moment, although Fen was vividly aware of Bridget and her great-aunt sitting behind them.
She could feel their presence, sense Bridget’s gaze fixed unwaveringly on the back of her head and imagine her frustration at the sight of Jamie’s arm lovingly draped around her shoulders.
At times he adjusted his position, tilting his head closer to hers as they chatted, and lazily rubbing his hand between her shoulder blades or stroking the line of her collarbone with his thumb.
It had been a toss-up which of these was her favourite, because they all provoked the most delicious reactions.
It finally occurred to her that the loving gestures could be looking a bit one-sided, so she whispered, ‘Do you think I should be doing something too?’
‘Might look more realistic.’ Jamie nodded. ‘Feel free.’
There was an offer she couldn’t refuse. The only annoying thing was that she hadn’t thought of it earlier.
As the sun inched its way down to the horizon, turning the expanse of water to swathes of rippling silver and gold, Fen allowed her fingers to playfully caress his neck, then roam across his shoulders.
When she laughed, she gave his arm an affectionate squeeze.
When the breeze tousled his hair – God, she loved doing this – she smoothed it back into place.
And when Jamie nudged the side of her leg with his own, she nudged his in return and kept her leg pressed against his.
The upside was that no cardigan was needed; her body was finding every second so unbelievably thrilling that it was creating its own heat.
The downside was that . . . nope, there were no downsides.
‘Here comes the sunset.’ Jamie raised his glass to hers as both the sky and the lagoon began to flood with colour.
Moments later, he leaned forward to take an uninterrupted photo over the parapet.
She might not have noticed anything was amiss if his knee hadn’t been resting against hers and she’d felt it jerk with surprise.
‘What is it?’ She was leaning forward too, and Prosecco spilled from his tilted glass as he said urgently, ‘Look up! Look at the sky!’
But some instinct made her look down instead, to the waterfront directly below them and the crowds making their way to and from St Mark’s Square, at the water taxis bouncing over the waves and the row of gondolas tied up to their posts bobbing gently as they waited to be hired . . .
‘The colours are amazing,’ Jamie blurted out in a panic.
But it was too late, Fen had seen what he was so desperate for her not to see.
One of the gondolas, having completed its journey down the Grand Canal, was being tied up at the wooden dock and the gondolier was helping its two passengers out onto dry land.
The first passenger was a woman who looked to be in her eighties, and the second was—
‘Sky!’ shouted Jamie.
‘Oh, look,’ said Fen. ‘There’s Bridget.’
She turned to Jamie and saw the faint flush visible in his tanned face. Who’d have thought he was capable of that?
‘Where? Ah, yes . . . so it is.’ He shook his head in disbelief.
‘That’s . . . I mean, all this time we thought they were sitting behind us, and they weren’t here on the terrace after all!
I guess they must have changed their minds and decided to go for a gondola ride instead.
’ His voice was strained. ‘I can’t believe we didn’t see them leave, but I suppose we were too busy admiring the view. ’
Fen couldn’t speak; she was doing her level best to keep a straight face, but the fact that he’d been caught out – and was mortified at having been caught out – was so . . .
Wonderful? Was that the word? Empowering, maybe? Jamie, who was never at a loss for words, was floundering now and becoming more embarrassed by the second. Tilting her head, fizzing with jubilation and relief, she said slowly, ‘I suppose we must have been. That has to be the reason.’
Jamie nodded, took a hasty gulp of Prosecco and began to cough, which turned him even redder. He sat back and gazed down over the parapet, and they both watched as Bridget and her great-aunt made their way towards the entrance of the hotel.
After a few more seconds of silence, he shrugged and said almost under his breath, ‘Busted. What an idiot.’
Fen was smiling now; she couldn’t help it. ‘Why?’
‘You know why.’ He raked his tanned fingers through his hair.
‘I think I know why. But I’d like to hear it from you.’
‘Are you laughing at me?’
‘Maybe. Just a bit. But in a good way.’
‘I’m embarrassed.’
‘Look at the sunset now, before it disappears. We’re always going to remember this evening.’
‘The evening I made a complete fool of myself because I didn’t know how to tell you how I was feeling.’
‘Was? Past tense?’
‘Past. Present. And future.’ Jamie paused, took another gulp of Prosecco and this time didn’t choke on it. Leaning to one side, he eased his wallet from his trouser pocket and removed the folded sheets of notepaper.
Taking a deep breath, he placed them on the table. ‘Here you are. You can read it if you want.’
Fen met his gaze, and saw everything she’d ever wanted to see in his dark-lashed eyes, glowing silver-blue in the last reflected rays of the sun as it sank into the lagoon. Unzipping her handbag, she took out her own letter from Leon and handed it over.
‘Let’s both do it, shall we?’
They sat together in silence for the next two minutes, each reading the words Leon had written to the other.
When they’d finished and put the letters away for safe keeping, Jamie said in a low voice, ‘Just so you know, I would never have let you read that unless I was one hundred per cent sure. But I am.’
He nodded slowly, willing her to understand, his breathing bordering on unsteady. ‘Everything he said. One hundred per cent, I promise.’
Light-headed with elation, because it may have been months since she’d first begun to feel the same way about him, but the strength of those emotions had rocketed in recent weeks, Fen saw the unspoken question in his eyes and reached for his hand.
‘Me too. I can’t quite believe this is happening, but me too. ’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
The relief in his voice was palpable. ‘I hoped so, but I didn’t know for sure.’
‘Me neither. And I couldn’t risk saying anything in case I was wrong.’
‘Same. My God, this is incredible.’ He gave a huge sigh of relief. ‘I’ve never felt like this before, ever. You have no idea. Oh . . .’
‘Oh what?’ Fen swivelled sideways to see who’d caught his attention, but it was only the hotel manager, speaking to a nearby table of guests.
‘I dreamt he chatted you up and you went off with him. Don’t laugh. I’ve never been jealous before, didn’t even know what it felt like.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘Turns out I didn’t like it.’
‘I promise not to run off with the hotel manager.’ Fen’s cheeks were starting to ache, she was so happy.
And they hadn’t even kissed yet. It was what she wanted to do more than anything; the urge to put her hands on either side of his face and hold his gaze for a blissful moment before closing the tiny distance between them and discovering how it felt to kiss that flawless mouth was overwhelming.
‘Go on,’ he murmured. ‘Tell me what you’re thinking right now.’
‘I’m wondering what it would be like to kiss you.’ Had she actually said it? Out loud? More laughter bubbled up. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘Funnily enough, much the same.’ He was grinning too.
Here they were, in one of the most wildly romantic cities in the world, both longing to make that all-important first move she’d dreamt of for so long, but hyper-aware that it wouldn’t be an appropriate thing to do.
Because this was a luxurious five-star hotel, they were sitting on the busy rooftop terrace, and everyone else out here was enjoying their dinner or their post-dining cocktails.
They probably wouldn’t appreciate the kind of full-on demonstration that might ensue . . .
‘Sir? Madam? Can I get you another drink?’ Their attentive waiter materialised beside them, breaking the spell.
Fen looked at Jamie and Jamie looked back at her, a smile hovering on both their mouths, and he began to shake his head, to explain that they’d had enough, thank you very much, when Bridget appeared behind the waiter and gabbled, ‘Jamie, you won’t believe what happened to us!
Emilio, could you bring our chairs up to this table so we can join them?
Hello again!’ She waggled her fingers at Fen and drew her companion forward.
‘And this is my great-aunt Effie! Effie, these are the friends I told you about. You don’t mind a bit of company, do you? ’
Jamie said, ‘Well—’
‘Sorted!’ Pulling up the first chair brought over by the obliging waiter, Bridget said rapidly, ‘You sit down, Effie, I’ll have the other one. Now brace yourselves, you two, and wait till you hear all about our wild adventure!’