‘I love the idea of finger painting,’ Amy said.
‘I do too,’ Chloe said.
Michael shrugged. ‘I’m happy to give anything a try.’
Flick smiled as they got their paints ready and started using their hands and fingers to create their masterpieces, laughing and squealing at the feel of the paint. She felt an ache in her chest, wishing Luke was here to see this.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Flick was definitely regretting her big romantic gesture right about now. She had been laughed at, had her photo taken and several people had made very unkind comments over the last few hours since she’d walked into Exeter airport and boarded her flight. She’d just got off in Edinburgh and was walking through the airport and still the pointing and laughing were continuing.
It was just after eight at night, she was tired and all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep. Stupidly she hadn’t checked out the opening times of the car hire place. She’d assumed that she would get off the plane and pick up a car pretty much straightaway, but they were only open until six and didn’t reopen now until eight the following morning.
She was going to have to get a hotel for the night and then make the five-hour journey to Skye tomorrow.
And she looked like an idiot. That was her biggest regret.
She walked outside into the cool night and looked around. Fortunately, there was a hotel dead opposite so she was having some luck today.
As she was still getting wolf whistled and mocked, she hurried across the road and walked into the reception area and stopped dead because Luke was walking out into the reception area too, dragging his suitcase behind him, having clearly come down from one of the bedrooms. She didn’t understand what he was doing here, he should have been in Skye hours ago.
He was wearing his sexy glasses again and he looked tired. He obviously hadn’t seen her yet, even though she stuck out like a sore thumb. She couldn’t move, frozen to the spot, so she waited for him to see her. Suddenly he did and his eyes widened as he stopped dead in the middle of the lobby. He took in what she was wearing and his eyes widened even more, the bag he was holding dropping to the floor.
He approached her slowly as if he didn’t believe she was really there and expected her to disappear any moment.
He reached out to touch her face but he didn’t say anything.
‘Luke, what are you doing here? I thought you’d be in your house in Skye by now?’
‘I’m an idiot and as soon as the plane took off this morning I realised what an idiot I was. So I decided to fly back home and tell you personally.’
‘You… you were going to fly home to tell me you’re an idiot?’ she asked, even more confused.
‘Yes, I’m booked on the ten o’clock flight. What are you doing here?’ His eyes cast down her body again. ‘And why are you dressed as Arwen?’
Flick was so embarrassed that she’d chosen to come here dressed as the elf princess fromLord of the Rings, complete with pointy ears. It seemed like a good idea at the time when she’d come up with her plan that morning. When they’d watched theLord of the Ringsfilm the week before with the big scene where Arwen gives Aragorn her Evenstar necklace as a symbol of her love and commitment to give up her immortality for him, Luke had said that he didn’t think any woman would ever love him enough to do that. So she’d decided to prove him wrong.
But now, standing before him dressed as an elf, she thought she’d made a big mistake. She didn’t want him to think she wasn’t taking their relationship seriously.
His eyes cast over her costume again. ‘You look so beautiful,’ he said, softly.
Emboldened by this, she took off the replica Evenstar necklace that came with the costume and pressed it into his hand. ‘I came to give you this.’
He stared at it in his hand for the longest moment and she willed him to say something, anything to give her some hope that all was not lost.
Without a word, he took her hand and walked back over to the lifts, grabbing his bag on the way, her own bag dragging behind them. When the lift arrived he bundled her inside. The lift doors closed and he pressed the button for the top floor. But still he didn’t sayanything, he just kept on staring at the necklace in his hand.
She stroked his face and he tore his eyes away from the necklace to look at her. She saw he had tears in his eyes and she reached up to stroke them away.
‘Luke, I’m sorry you heard what you did when I was on the phone, but you misunderstood. When you bought the house for me you did it without any thought about how it would affect our future. Buying Wonky Tree Studios meant I was tied to there and with you determined to leave I thought that you didn’t see a future for us. So I was chatting to Tabitha about how maybe it was only sex for you, just a few weeks of fun and it was never meant to be anything more than that. That’s what you heard.’
He shook his head and when he spoke his voice was rough. ‘You belong there. You’ve started to build a life there and you’ve created something wonderful and important with the studios and the workshops. I couldn’t let that be taken away from you. Buying the house was the only solution. And I didn’t think about our future, as much as I wanted one with you, because you loving me just didn’t appear on my radar. Especially after you said you loved me as a friend. I’ve been down that road before – women love me as a friend, they don’t fall in love with me and want forever with me. It was only when you said that getting over me was the hardest thing you’d ever have to do and were crying over me leaving that I realised we might have something worth fighting for. Unfortunately, in my sleepy,emotional state, I didn’t realise that until I was already on the plane flying away from there and then I had to wait for the next plane home. But you have to understand that I didn’t buy you the house to get rid of you, I bought it because I wanted to make you happy and because Lovegrove Bay is your home.’
‘But it’s not, not without you. You make me happy, Luke Donnelly, and I would give up the studios, my home, the gift shop, I’d give it all up to be with you, wherever you are in the world. You are my home. I love you. I fell for you so fast and so hard and I’ve never felt this way before about anyone.’
He stared at her and then kissed her hard.
The lift doors pinged open and Luke quickly marched down the hall, almost dragging her and her bag behind him. He fished his key card out of his pocket, opened the room and walked in, pulling her with him. Before the door had even closed behind them, he was kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself up against him and kissing him back. Her heart soared, this was where she belonged. And maybe he didn’t love her yet, it was still so early for them, but this gave her so much hope, when that morning she’d had none.
