Something flickered in his eyes. ‘I wasn’t going to say that, but I’m happy to go along with your suggestion.’
‘I... what? I wasn’t suggesting that. It was just a crazy throwaway remark.’
‘Well,’ Rhys said, settling back more comfortably in his chair. ‘I actually think it’s too good a plan to discard. Maybe we’re the exception to the rule. I’ll have marks that never fade and the connection you’re so determined to dismiss will actually turn out to be something that was meant to last. Stop thinking about what could go wrong here, Ellie... think about what could go right.’
Despite the voice screaming in my head that this was crazy, he must have seen I was wavering.
‘Let’s just relax, forget about giving this a label, enjoy the rest of the summer and see what happens,’ he said gently. ‘We can take the physical side of things out of the equation if that makes it easier. In fact,’ he lowered his voice to a whisper, ‘even if you got down on your knees and begged me to take you to bed, I would have to respectfully decline.’
That brought out my smile.
He held out his hand as though we’d just negotiated a tricky contract. I looked at it for a long moment before placing my palm against his.
‘One condition,’ I said, before allowing us to seal our words with a handshake.
‘Go on.’
‘Tasha comes first. You have to promise you’ll put her before me, every single time.’
There were so many questions in his eyes, but I wasn’t ready to answer any of them.
He nodded slowly and solemnly. ‘Tasha comes first.’
Finally, I smiled. ‘Okay then. You’ve got yourself a deal.’
Chapter Twenty-Six
‘I’m sorry, Ellie. Whichever way you slice it, it sounds like a red flag to me.’
‘I thought you liked Rhys.’
Mel set down her paintbrush, dripping a few drops of emulsion onto the plastic sheeting that covered the floor. ‘I did. I do. And I admire him for being honest and upfront with you. But it’s hard to hear that he might only see this as a summer fling.’
‘Maybe a fling is all I want too. And to be fair, that wasn’t exactly how he phrased it.’ It wasn’t easy defending Rhys when I privately agreed with everything Mel said.
She reached for a rag to wipe her paint-stained fingers. The look on her face needed no caption.
‘Well, I want more for you. You deserve more. I want you to be somebody’s everything. And as much as I like what you’ve told me about Rhys, I’m not convinced that ex of his will ever accept that he’s moved on. Or hasn’t damaged him so much that he never can.’ Her voice softened. ‘I want someone who’ll look at you the way Steve looks at me. Even when I’m feeling grotty, pumped full of hormones, and tearful 24-7.’
‘I think they broke the mould when they made your husband.’
Mel’s eyes lit up the way I could remember them doing after her very first date with Steve, when she’d come home and woken me up at two a.m. to tell me she’d just met ‘the one’.
‘Not everyone gets the fairy tale, you know.’
‘No. Some people have to be zapped with a gazillion volts of electricity to find their man,’ teased Jackson, carefully descending the stepladder with a paint roller in his hand and specks of emulsion in his hair.
He paused on the bottom rung and surveyed his handiwork. ‘I told you we were going to run out of paint.’
I frowned and glanced at my watch. ‘I could make a quick dash to the DIY store.’
Jackson came up between us and threw an arm around both our shoulders. ‘It’s okay. I’ll go. There’s a cake shop near the one on the industrial estate that I want to scope out for our wedding cake. Cupcakes and Rainbows, or something like that.’
I looked at both of my oldest friends and felt overwhelmed with a wave of love. Jackson was busy with wedding plans, Mel with her fertility journey, and yet neither had hesitated for a second when I’d asked them if they were interested in helping me decorate the old wool shop.
‘This is kind of like old times, isn’t it?’ Jackson said, his eyes going to me. I think we’d all been sucked back into memories of evenings and weekends spent decorating my office three years earlier. ‘Or did the lightning wipe those memories out too?’
My smile was warm. ‘No. They stuck. Maybe because they’re some of my favourites.’