Chapter Twenty-Eight
Diana
The courtyard buzzed with energy. Drinks flowed as charming acoustic music drifted amid the hum of laughter and happy conversations. There was so much colour in the usual serene and calm place Diana had become fond of.
Ella and Riley had been whisked away to take wedding photos, their grins wide enough to split their faces, love spilling out of their pores.
It was the complete opposite of Diana’s wedding day.
A simple gathering at their local church, Diana bursting out of her dress, and Jason complaining about his shoes being too tight.
She should’ve listened to her gut then. No bride should experience a sinking feeling uttering the words “I do” when looking at their future spouse, or spend the evening trying not to cry in the bathroom because Jason had been very close to one of her bridesmaids. Too close, she later found out.
But she trusted her gut now. Her eyes followed Faye, and the subtle, soft vibrations thrummed across her skin, her senses searching, craving her.
Like souls aching to reconnect. How had it been three months?
Time had stretched unbearably since she’d last seen her.
It was a sin, really. Just like that slit running up her thigh, revealing perfect pale legs.
They moved towards the bench without discussing it, the place a sentimental marker for so much of their time together.
Faye took a seat, looking out at the endless stretch of ocean. A faint layer of goosebumps rippled over her bare arms. Diana longed to touch them, to comfort her, the feeling so powerful it pained her keeping it restrained.
But she didn’t want to overstep any boundaries, so she took a seat beside her.
Ella and Riley were standing at the top of one of the cliffs, posing for photos.
Riley twirled Ella in circles, the camera flashing, their laughter lost on the breeze.
Ella’s dress spun out around them both, sparkling in the sunlight, and Riley kissed her.
Diana looked away, feeling like she was intruding on a private moment.
“I’m glad you came,” she said, breaking the silence. “I wasn’t sure whether you would.”
“I wanted to be here for Riley.” Faye’s words were sharp, perhaps harsher than she’d intended, because she cleared her throat and smoothed out her dress, then added, more softly, “I wasn’t sure whether you would, either.”
“I wanted to see you.”
Faye huffed. A dark lock of hair fell across her face. “You waited long enough, didn’t you?”
“I know.”
“It’s been three months, Diana.”
“I know.”
Faye shot her a steely gaze. “Do you have any idea how much you hurt me?” The raw honesty sliced straight into Diana, and she fought the instinct to turn away.
“Hearing you voice aloud the fear I had. That I meant nothing to you. Blaming me to try to save your own skin.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “I felt so stupid.”
Diana’s heart squeezed. “Faye, I—”
“I’m not finished.” Faye held up her hand. “I need to get this out.”
Diana nodded, surprised but impressed with the new fierceness.
“I know I’m not an innocent party in this,” Faye went on.
“When I found out you were Molly’s mum, I still wanted to explore what we had.
I wasn’t thinking about Molly. I just wanted to know you.
I do feel guilty about that, but I don’t, and will not, regret it.
” Her eyes slowly found Diana’s; the earlier feistiness melted away.
“I will never regret you, Diana. Even after you stomped on my heart.”
Diana blew out a breath.
“In a way, I should’ve known better,” Faye continued.
“But I was so enamoured by you. You made me feel special.” She swallowed.
“You made me feel wanted. I was na?ve to think I wouldn’t want more from you when our stay was over.
” Her gaze flicked to Diana again. “It took a lot for me to tell you that before we left. I spilt my heart to you and then… nothing…” She pressed her lips together in an attempt to fight off her emotion and exhaled a shaky breath.
“I gave you my heart…and you just dropped it.”
Goosebumps covered Diana’s skin now, too, despite the Portuguese sun overhead. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Can I talk now?” she asked.
Faye nodded.
Diana reached for her necklace. The hard lines of the dove rough between her fingers.
“I never really understood people’s obsession with relationships,” she admitted.
“Very time-consuming, emotionally draining, a distraction mainly from getting you what you really wanted in life. I had a few arrangements, naturally, but the desire for more didn’t interest me. ”
Faye muttered something Diana didn’t catch and shook her head, assessing Diana as though she had a million thoughts racing through her mind—and not one of them good.
“I never understood it,” Diana continued, “until I met you.”
Faye’s glare softened, and it took everything in Diana not to pull that perfect face to hers and kiss it. But just as much as Faye needed to get things off her chest, so did she.
“From that first moment I saw you, I was hooked. What twenty-something-year-old sits in a bar and does sudoku?” She let out a breath of laughter.
“That shy confidence, the passionate speech about chickens… The way you rushed to save that idiotic man from choking.” Her smile stretched.
“I was completely swept up in you, Faye. I have been ever since. I told myself it was a researcher’s curiosity.
When something intrigues us, we encourage our brains, follow the trail, and try to uncover something new.
But that ‘something’ isn’t measured by data or by collecting samples.
It just is.” She looked out at the sea, the sunlight glinting off the rolling waves.
“It’s difficult to trust in a gut instinct that has always felt foreign to me.
So imagine my surprise when I finally recognised the truth.
” She turned to Faye, catching those beautiful eyes.
“I was forty-one when I finally understood love.”
The words lightened the weight in her chest, and she breathed out. A breeze tickled the hair around her face.
“And not only that, I’d fallen in love with someone who was living in another country.
With someone who, for many reasons, was off-limits.
But in all my theories and dissecting, I’ve come to the same conclusion.
Love just is. It doesn’t discriminate by age or location.
Nor complicated circumstances regarding previous partners.
Love exists in the spaces between, without scientific reason or purpose. Love just…is.”
Faye’s eyes welled. That unexplainable feeling flowed through both of them. Pain mutual, joy shared.
Diana placed a hand on Faye’s, her heart soaring when she didn’t pull away.
“I’m so sorry for the way we left things.
For reacting the way I did. I panicked. Everything blew up in front of me, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
I should’ve reached out sooner—I wanted to. But I still didn’t have any answers.”
Faye looked at her through those long lashes. “And now?”
She swallowed, recalling the words Faye said to her on this very bench those few months ago.
“I want to uncover all of your layers. I want to show you how beautiful you are. I want to love you in all the ways you deserve.” She cupped Faye’s face, hoping she knew she meant every word.
“In a way I’ve never thought possible, with a hunger that made me completely reckless, with more certainty than I’ve ever known, I want you too, Faye. ”
“Diana…” Faye’s voice broke on her name.
But Diana couldn’t fight it any longer. She pulled Faye to her and kissed her, the kiss charged with three months’ longing.
As soon as their lips touched, something in her cracked wide open.
Soft melted into hard, Faye’s mouth welcoming hers in a way that made her whole soul fill with light.
God, she’d missed her taste, the shape of her lips, the soft sounds she made when Diana kissed a little harder or nipped her with her teeth.
Faye met her with the same desperation, their hands gripping each other like they were afraid to let go.
When they pulled away, breathless—Faye’s fingers still tangled in her hair, Diana’s lipstick staining her mouth—Diana’s chest loosened. She was weightless, soaring up in the blue sky, looking into those gorgeous irises.
Faye brushed a strand of hair behind Diana’s ear, her voice soft. “But what about Molly?”
She smiled. “She’s the one who convinced me to come here today.”
“Molly?”
“Yes.”
Faye raised an eyebrow. “The woman who told us both to go rot in hell?”
“The one and the same. My daughter.”
“Wow.” Faye sat back, shaking her head. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Me neither.”
“That’s surprisingly cool of her.”
Diana laughed. “Yeah, it undoubtedly is.”
“So I can do this?” Faye’s fingertips grazed Diana’s thigh, and then she gripped it more forcefully, giving it a squeeze. “And Molly isn’t going to come around the corner with a machete and murder me?”
Diana shook her head, heat curling in her centre under Faye’s touch.
“And this?” Faye drew her thumb delicately across Diana’s cheekbone, tracing the mole she favoured before leaning in close to capture her lips. She squeezed her thigh again, fingertips inching closer to where Diana missed them most, sending an ache pulsing between her legs.
A huge cheer erupted, jarring them both from their bubble. They turned to see a red-faced Riley carrying Ella up the last of the steps before placing her down unceremoniously on the stone flags. The guests whooped and hollered as Riley bent over, trying to catch her breath.
The singer called out, “Everybody, please welcome the newlyweds, Mrs and Mrs Murphy!”
Diana stood, offering her hand to Faye. “Come on, we can make up some more later.”
Her eyes twinkled. “I’ll hold you to that, Dr Thompson.”