‘There you are,’ Nick said, smiling up at me from the sand, as though he’d been waiting for me all along and this wasn’t just some happy coincidence.
He patted the space beside him, and I dropped down on to it.
‘Good morning,’ he said, leaning over and pressing a brief but firm kiss on my lips. That was new for us and even now I realised that however long we had together, it would never get old. It was also the first time I’d seen him looking anything less than clean-shaven. Dark stubble covered his cheeks, making him look even more attractive than usual – something I’d have argued was actually impossible to achieve.
Mabel was happily frolicking in the waves, and I smiled at her doggy antics as she repeatedly dropped and then recaptured her ball. I drew up my knees and rested my chin on them, turning my head to one side to look at Nick.
I was aware there was a big old Cheshire cat grin on my face that I could do nothing to hide. It somehow managed to stretch even wider when Nick reached inside a paper carrier and pulled out a takeaway container of coffee. For a moment I thought it was his, before noticing there was already a cup wedged in the sand by his feet.
‘Flat white with two sugars,’ he said, reciting my drink of choice as he passed me the coffee.
I took it from his hands, my grin faltering slightly.
‘Thatishow you take it, isn’t it?’ he asked.
I nodded, cupping my hands around the container, which was still hot enough to warm them. ‘I don’t understand. How did you know I’d be here this morning?Ididn’t even know I was going for a run.’
I’m normally quicker at joining up the dots, but in my defence itwasfairly early, and I was still a little wrong-footed to find him here on the beach. ‘Have you…? Did you…? Have you been coming here every day?’
The stubble camouflaged his blush, making it hard to spot – unless you were looking very closely. And I was looking very closely.
Nick gave a shrug that missed nonchalant by a country mile. ‘We agreed that we’d meet for coffee whenever we could… so this seemed like a good place to start.’
‘But we’ve spoken every day since that night on the beach. Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell me you’d been here every day? With coffee,’ I added enthusiastically, as I took a long sip.
Nick reached for my free hand and threaded his fingers through mine. ‘Because there’s a lot going on with you right now, and I didn’t want to complicate things.’
Was he kidding me? We’d spent the last few weeks with me pretending to be my own sister and him her non-existent husband. How much more complicated could we possibly make it?
Perhaps he heard the flimsiness of his reply, for he shook his head as though his own words had disappointed him. ‘No. It’s more than that. As much as I wanted to see you, I didn’t want you to feel pressured or obligated in any way. Your focus is on Amelia, which is exactly where it needs to be. So, I just decided I’d come to the place where we met and wait to see if Fate would step in. And today it did.’
I was silent for a long moment, not because I couldn’t think of what to say, but because I couldn’t trust my voice not to wobble. ‘That might just be the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.’
His dark brows drew a little closer together at that. ‘Well, that’s just all kinds of wrong. It makes me think you’ve been going out with entirely the wrong sort of men.’
I smiled at him, holding nothing back. ‘I’m beginning to think that myself, and you’d certainly get no argument from Amelia on that one.’
As tempting as it was to linger on the beach, we both knew we couldn’t stay for long. Nick had to go home and shower before work and I needed to get back to Amelia. But that brief interlude on the sand had shifted the course of us. We sat on the shoreline, taking turns throwing the ball for Mabel, and when my head dropped to his shoulder and his arm found its way around my waist, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Nick didn’t kiss me – not in the way I wanted him to – but in a way that felt right too. Whatever this thing was, it was bigger than lust and had foundations that were stronger than I realised.
It was with real reluctance that I finally got to my feet to leave. ‘You’ve no idea how much I needed this,’ I said, gathering up my empty cup. I wasn’t referring to the coffee, or the apple Danish he’d also produced for me. ‘I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, but this has been like a reset.’ I gave a rueful smile. ‘It turns out there’s a good reason why I work in publishing and not nursing. According to my current patient, I fuss too much and panic too easily. It makes me think I’ll be a terrible mum one day.’
Nick didn’t miss a beat. ‘I don’t believe that for a single minute.’
I knew he was only being polite, but my reckless heart was having none of it. It was already chasing after dreams that could never be.
‘Same time tomorrow?’ Nick asked, pulling me in for one last hug.
‘Tomorrow,’ I agreed happily.
*
It was one week later, and we were once again walking along the shoreline of the deserted beach at dawn. It was cold, but with Nick’s arm holding me close to his side, I felt only the warmth of him. I already knew that long after I returned to New York, Somerset and this beach would hold the memory of us in the palm of its hand.
Every now and then we’d stop to examine pieces of unusual driftwood or shells, or when it felt like too long since our last kiss. I’d never had a relationship before where I enjoyed the comfortable silences almost as much as the conversations. But then, the longer I spent in Nick’s company, the more I came to realise that I’d never really had a meaningful relationship before. I used to think that I’d never connect with anyone the way I connected with Amelia. And the pain of knowing that I couldn’t tell her what I’d finally found, without breaking her heart in the process, was destroying me.
Nick was holding a length of bone-white driftwood that I’d admired and was fiddling with it like a baton as we strolled along the sand. If I didn’t know better, I’d have said he was nervous. But Nick didn’t do nervous, or at least he hadn’t until now. Without warning, he came to a sudden halt and turned towards me. The sun was still low in the sky, its reflection glinting in his glasses, making it impossible to read the expression in his eyes.
‘I have a question I want to ask you.’