Chapter 21
Gaby was impressed by the little bar Peter had chosen. The tapas were delicious and the wine was dangerously drinkable. Pleased with their food choices, they moved on to share two larger plates for dinner, opting for seafood paella and a herby grilled chicken dish served with a crisp green salad.
The bar was relaxed and cosy. Gaby realised she’d described just about every place Peter had taken her with that word—cosy.
And she didn’t mean it in the twee, trying-too-hard way that some ‘cosy’ venues ended up feeling.
She meant it in the sense that these places made her feel comfortable and at ease and reluctant to go once they’d finished eating and drinking.
That was the true mark of a good restaurant or bar or pub—once you’d had your fill, you didn’t want to leave because you felt at home there.
Cosy.
Feeling cosy in the bar offset the decidedly non-cosy way she felt whenever Peter looked at her with that dark gleam in his eyes or reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
She felt anything but cosy in those moments. Instead, she felt… reckless.
Once they finished the bottle of wine, they ordered coffee because that cosy feeling made Gaby want to stay a little longer, cocooned and comfortable and deep in conversation with Peter.
Even after an entire afternoon together, they hadn’t run out of things to talk about.
Considering all the time they’d spent together already, it was crazy that those conversations just kept flowing as they swapped more stories from their past, their thoughts and opinions on every topic under the sun, their favourite movies and music, books they’d read, things they’d loved.
As Peter shared funny stories about his brothers and some of the antics they’d got up to in their heydays before the women in their lives knocked some sense into them—stories that had her literally in tears with helpless laughter—she realised this was the most fun she’d ever had with a man in her entire life.
She thought of the many sweet love affairs she’d enjoyed over the years.
The passionate chef she’d met in Paris. The hotel manager she’d fallen for in Rome.
The wedding singer she’d spent a season with in Sydney.
The bar owner she’d adored in Barcelona.
And the others she’d dated and enjoyed spending time with as she moved from place to place.
Every one of those men had been wonderful and they all owned a tiny piece of her heart.
She cherished the memories of the times she’d spent with each of them—sunset walks around the Sacre Coeur, romantic dinners beneath the Colosseum, hot afternoons on Bondi Beach, candlelit drinks in the shadow of the Sagrada Familia, and so many other memories that filled her heart with gratitude and happiness.
But she’d never known fun like this. With Peter.
She felt completely at ease with him and loved hearing every story he wanted to share with her. The more she heard, the more she wanted to hear and the more she wanted to know about him and his life, how his mind worked now, what he wanted now, what he wanted in the future.
Every moment they shared now was framed with the memory of the kids they’d been when they first met. She’d known the boy and now she knew the man and remembering the boy made her love this time spent with the man all the more.
And when it was her turn to speak, the way he hung on her every word and the way he looked at her made her feel like the only person in the entire world.
After they finished their coffee, Peter gave her one of those looks and smiled, which only added to the effect of his charms.
“So, how about that walk up to Blackberry Hill?” he asked.
“Yes, let’s do it,” she said and stood up to pull on her coat. “If we don’t go now I’ll only order more coffee and end up staying here for the rest of the evening.”
“That wouldn’t be a terrible way to spend our time, if that’s what you want.”
“You promised me the stars. I expect you to deliver.”
He smiled, eyes twinkling at her remark.
Reckless, she thought… and decided she was okay with that.
Peter paid the bill, fending her off when she tried to pay it herself, and they left the bar. It was cold outside, a surprise after the warmth they’d left behind. Gaby buttoned her coat and tucked herself into Peter’s side as they started walking, looping her arm into his.
They retraced their steps through the town centre, past busy bars and crowded restaurants filled with people enjoying their Saturday night.
On the high street, they squeezed past the people queuing out the door at the fish and chip shop and the other take away places and then squeezed past a group of kids standing outside a busy ice cream and dessert shop, laughing and horsing around as they waited for a table to open up inside.
Taxis and cars whizzed up and down on the road, people hustled around on the pavement, and a packed bus trundled past.
For a little town hidden amongst the green folds of the English South Downs, Hamblehurst was a vibrant place, bursting with life and activity.
And yet once they moved away from the high street and began walking along the residential streets, it turned into a peaceful and sleepy place again.
They passed dog walkers and late-night joggers and shift workers coming and going, passed houses tucked up for the night and with televisions flickering behind closed curtains.
Cosy, Gaby thought once more. It was such a lovely, pretty, cosy town. No wonder Peter had decided to make his life here. There was so much to like, so much to love.
She wondered if her attention to her surroundings—the busy high street, the bustling restaurants and pubs, the peaceful residential streets, the people out and about—was a distraction tactic to stop her thinking about the destination ahead.
Walking out of town in the November darkness and climbing up Blackberry Hill was an obviously ridiculous thing for two thirty-somethings to do at ten o’clock on a Saturday night.
And yet, they were doing it anyway.
Reckless, she thought yet again.
Peter kept her hand tucked inside his as they walked. She liked that, liked feeling that connection. Walking along the dark streets, hand in hand as they headed towards their destination, she felt like a character in a fairy tale on a quest into enchanted lands.
That’s the wine talking, she told herself. Or at least, you’d better hope that’s all it is.
The night sky was clear, the afternoon clouds having drifted off as evening arrived. The stars were already visible and Gaby was excited to see how amazing the sky would look once they left behind the streetlights.
They chatted as they walked, the same easy conversation they’d been sharing all day. The longer they spent together, the more comfortable she felt with him, as if the fifteen years that separated them from when they’d first met didn’t much matter.
Soon, they’d left behind the residential streets and joined a lane that led them away from the town and up towards Blackberry Hill. Even in the darkness, Gaby’s memories came flooding back as she remembered the route they’d taken when they were kids.
Moving from the country lane and onto the worn path that led up the side of the hill, she held tighter to Peter’s hand as the terrain underfoot became more uneven.
“I’ve got you,” he said when she stumbled a little.
“I hope so. Tripping and falling head-first down this hill might put a dampener on things.”
Peter laughed and pulled out his phone and turned on the torch. “Better?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll keep the light on until we reach the top. We’re almost there.”
A couple of minutes later, they arrived at the summit of the hill and Peter turned off the phone torch. Gaby caught her breath after the climb but still let out a gasp when she saw the view.
Hamblehurst was spread out like a glittering jewel below them, the streetlights marking the roads and routes of the pretty little town that was surrounded by the darkness of the rolling South Downs.
“It’s so lovely,” Gaby said. “From up here, it looks like a painting of a magical village.”
Peter smiled. “I thought you’d like to see it again at night.” He pointed into the distance. “If you look far enough, you can see the coastline and the channel.”
“I see it!” Gaby could just make out the moonlit sparkle of water in the distance where the English Channel stretched along the south coast. “I remember looking across there on summer days but seeing it in darkness is just as amazing.”
But it was the starlight above them that was most amazing of all. The night sky glittered with more stars than she could ever count, each one a sparkling diamond in an endless universe spinning around them.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered. “I can hardly take in how beautiful it is.”
“We got lucky with the clear skies,” Peter said. “It’s the perfect night for it.”
Gaby stepped closer to him and slipped her hand in his again as they gazed up at the spectacular star-scape.
“It looks different to how I remember it when we came here that summer night fifteen years ago,” Gaby said. “It’s so much darker.”
“The summer night sky is completely different to a winter night sky. We’re right at the edge of autumn and getting the benefit of longer hours of darkness. In the summer, there’s just more light around, even at night. At this time of year, the stars shine much brighter.”
The night sky was so stunning, Gaby couldn’t take her eyes off it.
The beauty of the twinkling stars and the sheer number of them was astonishing.
Add in the loveliness of the town tucked below and the inky waters of the channel just visible in the distance and the dark landscapes all around and it was like something out of a dream.
“It’s a gift to see this, Peter. Thanks for bringing me up here.”
“My pleasure.”
He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. Enjoying this extraordinary moment with this wonderful man at her side was nothing short of blissful.
Sudden movement overhead caught her attention and when Gaby turned to look, she saw the flash of a shooting star streaking across the sky.
“Look!” she said, excitement making her clap her hands in joy. “It’s a shooting star!”
“I see it,” Peter laughed, obviously amused at her enthusiasm. “Make a wish on it.”
And so she did.
I wish for… happiness like this forever.
Gaby blinked at the secret, silent words that had rushed into her mind. When she turned to Peter, his gaze was on her, his eyes searching hers, and she couldn’t resist the idea that he’d somehow read her mind and heard the wish she’d made on the shooting star.
He moved closer and pulled her near. His intense gaze held her captivated for a long beat before he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her.
Gaby sighed softly and surrendered into his arms. His kiss lit up every nerve ending inside her body and sent her heart soaring as if it had hitched a ride with that shooting star now blazing a trail across the night sky.
Of all the places she’d travelled around the world, of all the wonders she’d seen, nothing came close to the epic romance of this moment, standing on a dark hill beneath a starlit sky with a man who stole her breath away.
Peter brushed one final lingering kiss across her lips. “You make me feel eighteen again, Gaby.”
She let out a soft laugh. “You’re the one who brought us up here. You made this magical.”
“It wouldn’t be magical without you.”
He held her gaze again and Gaby thought she could look into his eyes forever. The notion made her breath catch.
“Come home with me tonight, Gaby.”
Gaby’s eyes widened in surprise. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m leaving soon.”
“You don’t want to spend the night with me?”
She opened her mouth to say that no, she didn’t want to spend the night with him. But that would’ve been a lie.
“If you say you don’t want to, I won’t ask again,” he said.
Even if she’d wanted to lie and say those words, she couldn’t have got them out of her mouth because she was too busy pulling him closer and kissing him again.
She knew it was madness, but she couldn’t help herself. When she finally released him and saw the look in his eyes, she knew she was a goner.
“You’ll spend the night with me?” he whispered against her ear.
“Yes.”
He sighed, smiled, squeezed her hand and without another word led her towards the worn pathway that led back down Blackberry Hill.
This is reckless, Gaby thought as she followed him. Utterly reckless.
She looked up at the night sky one last time and saw another shooting star streaking overhead.
It was miraculous and lovely. A gift. A reminder of the wish she’d made only moments ago, a wish for this happiness to last always.
A foolish wish, perhaps. But as she walked hand-in-hand with Peter through the inky darkness and with the starlit sky glittering above them, Gaby decided to grab this one lovely moment while it lasted.
And worry later about what it might cost her.