Duncan half-gets out of his chair, then sits back down. ‘Seriously?’ he says, looking shocked.
She laughs. ‘Yes!’
‘You like me?’
‘Yeah. I’m not hanging around with you because I don’t. And I maybe more than like you.’ It’s out of her mouth before she can stop it.
Now he looks like he’s won an Olympic gold medal or an Oscar.
‘Well, I’m going to say it first,’ he says. ‘I love you, Christina. I think I always have. But it’s … It’s better now. We’re grown-ups.’
This is the first time a man has ever told Christina that he loves her and she feels it in her body. The wave of it. The warmth of it.Thisis what it means to be loved.
And to love. Yes, that’s what she’s feeling. She loves him. She loves him!
‘We are,’ she says, feeling nervous even though she knows she’ll have a soft landing when she jumps. ‘And I love you too.’
Now he’s out of his seat and lifting her up, kissing her lips, her eyelids, her cheeks, her neck. Telling her how much heloves her, how glorious she is, how he wants her to have the best life and he’ll do anything he can to make that happen.
‘Thank you,’ she whispers as she starts crying, unable to stop but not wanting to either. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Acustomer is looking at a hot-pink ballgown when the door opens and Christina sweeps in, all radiance and glamour.
‘Morning, Daph!’ she says, kissing Daphne on the cheek as usual, then heading straight for the back room to stow her handbag.
The room is now almost overflowing with Lucy’s creations. Occasionally Daphne wonders if the girl is living out there, although she’s at school at the moment. When Daphne asked yesterday how her final year is going, Lucy rolled her eyes and said, ‘I just want it over with.’
Daphne understands how she feels. Hector is home from hospital but she and Janet are barely coping. The doctors told her he’d had a mild stroke but there doesn’t seem to be anything mild about it. He can’t move anywhere on his own, and they’ve had to get Noel in to help from time to time.
When Adelaide came around to tell Daphne that her son wanted to meet Hector, Daphne demurred. Partly because just the thought of Hector and Adelaide having a son makes her feel like a rock has struck her in the chest, but mainly because Hector is so unlike himself these days that she doesn’t know what a meeting would achieve.
‘How are you?’ Christina says breathily as she comes to stand next to Daphne at the counter.
‘Oh, you know, love – seen better days.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m sure things will turn around!’
Christina’s constant positivity is a new stance and occasionally irksome – Daphne sometimes wants to be left to her bad moods. Except she can’t begrudge the younger woman her outlook. Christina has hinted at darkness in her past, and Daphne can only imagine what that movie world is like.
‘I have an idea,’ Christina continues.
‘Oh?’
‘Actually, more than one.’
She beams and Daphne can’t help but smile back – which makes her think that this is how Christina became so successful as an actress. She’s irresistible when she’s upbeat.
‘Your designs,’ Christina says, and Daphne’s gear switches towary.
‘What about them?’ she asks tentatively. It’s been a while since she and Christina have discussed them; she had half thought the younger woman had forgotten about it.
Christina grins. ‘I think they should be made.’
Of course, Daphne has thought about this herself. Dreamed of it when she was younger. These days, though, the designs are drawn for her own distraction more than anything, and she doesn’t believe she’s in touch enough with what women want to wear that they should become real clothes. They’re her hobby. Nothing more.
‘I don’t,’ she says.