‘Oh, for God’s sake, it’s like we’ve lost the power of communication! I’m dying here, and not just of bloody sunstroke. Did. You. Mean. That. You. Wanted. To. Kiss. Me?’
He was astonished that she had to ask. ‘Of course I did. I don’t just go saying stuff like that to…’
‘Aaaargh!’ Her frustration came out in a low strangled groan, just as her hand shot out and covered his mouth. ‘Don’t speak. Not a word. Because I’m so bloody fed up with guessing what everyone is thinking and feeling, and what would make everyone else fricking happy and then getting it wrong. I’m sick of it! Look where it’s got me!’
He’d have chipped in there, but she still had him gagged.
‘So here’s the thing, Romeo. The call I just made was to my boyfriend and I informed him that I don’t want to be in a relationship with him anymore because we were in a rut and only still hanging in there out of habit and we’ve made absolutely zero bloody effort to make the most of our lives or to make each other happy. And he proved that point by asking me if I could call back because he was in the middle of something important at work. So we’re done. Finished. And one of the reasons that I did the first rash and unpredictable thing in my entire well-behaved, sensible life was because the other night, when you, you big bloody lovely man, asked if you could kiss me, I really, really, really wanted to say yes. But I couldn’t, because I had a fricking boyfriend and I’d have hated myself forever if I did something awful to him. And then, you blew it all by taking a call from the woman who broke your heart, so you’ve probably realised that you’re still in love with her because I bet she’s all sexy and smart and has a manicured bikini line and doesn’t do half the crazy shit that you’ve seen me do since I hijacked your life and coerced you into one of my daft plans. And if that’s the case, then tell me now, because I might have mentioned I’m FRICKING OVER GUESSING WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE MINDS OF OTHER PEOPLE. And in case you need me to wrap that all up in a nice little bloody bow, here it is. You make me feel a way I’ve never felt before. I don’t know if I like it or not, but it’s making me do stuff like break up with my boyfriend, so that’s done, and now I’m single. And it felt like someone was taking a baseball bat to my heart earlier, when I thought your ex might have showed up, but now I realise that she hasn’t. However that doesn’t mean you haven’t gone back to your fiancée, the invisible bloody woman, and if you have, then say it now and then walk away. But if you haven’t, then I’m going to stop talking in a minute because this is the longest rant I’ve ever spouted in my life. I’m going to take my hand off your mouth and you’re going to lean over, and put your thumb on my chin, and then my cheek – because I see that in movies and it looks so bloody sexy – and then you’re going to kiss me and I’m going to let you and we’re going to see how that goes. Do you understand? Nod once for yes.’
He nodded.
And then, as she removed her hand, he leaned over and touched the chin of the most spectacular, funny, gorgeous, intoxicating woman he’d ever met, then slowly, so, so slowly, never once breaking her gaze, he moved his hand to her cheek, and then he edged closer. Then stopped. But just for a second. Because he wanted to remember how totally incredible this felt. Then he moved closer again, until his lips grazed hers, then pressed a little harder, until their breaths joined and became one, until his heart couldn’t stand it, until he wanted to punch the air because he had never felt anything even close to the giddy, ecstatic, earth-shifting joy that he was feeling right now.
He kissed her again. Then kissed her again. Then kissed her some more. Then kissed her until she pulled back and he could see her face again. He watched as her natural shyness kicked in and she laughed, then checked around them to see if anyone was watching because she wasn’t really a kissing-in-public kind of girl. Until now.
‘Aiden, can I ask you something a bit random?’
‘Anything. Especially if it means we can get off this sidewalk before we pick up some bacteria that could kill us, and go somewhere that I can do that to you again. For a long, long time.’
‘No, not that. I mean, yes, that too. But something else…’
‘Anything.’
She was squinting off into the distance again, so he figured it must be something pretty profound.
‘Is that your mum over there snogging your best mate?’
33
EILEEN
It was only 6 a.m., but already the departure lounge at Las Vegas airport was busy. Some of the Saturday morning crowd were heading home after coming up here for shows the night before. Some had been at conferences all week and tagged on an extra night so they could have one last blowout before returning to the responsibilities of families and everyday life. Some were gamblers who’d arrived yesterday, lost every penny they had on the tables and were now cutting their weekend short because they’d just learned the lesson that the house always wins.
And some were, like them, a mixed bag of family and friends.
Aiden and Zara were sitting across the table from her, holding hands, both of them staring at the floor until Aiden got up and wandered off. Eileen’s heart broke for them. It was obvious to them all that Aiden and Zara had found something in each other. When they’d come back from the wedding chapel yesterday, they’d been wrapped up in each other and Eileen had never seen her son look at anyone, not even Layla, the way that he was looking at Brenda’s daughter. This was something very new and very wonderful, yet already they were having to say goodbye.
Brenda and Colin were sitting beside her, although Colin was already engrossed in a gardening magazine. Brenda said he’d brought it with him, which told them all they needed to know about how exciting he thought this anniversary trip was going to be.
Next to Colin, Millie was sitting on the knee of Chad, her off-duty cop, who had barely left her side since the moment he met her.
And finally, beside Aiden’s empty chair, Trevon was deliberately avoiding eye contact with Eileen, because he still couldn’t work out what was going on in her head. That made two of them.
It struck her that every one of them had come here expecting one thing, only to discover that this city was full of surprises.
And no one had surprised Eileen more than herself.
Spontaneously kissing Trevon yesterday when they’d left the chapel – that had all been on her, but it had been inspired by Brenda.
She’d heard the words Brenda had spoken to her daughters after Colin had ripped up their vows and, together, they’d chosen another path. Smart, quiet, caring Brenda, who, even back in their twenties when they were just all figuring life out, had always been the wisest of them all.
‘There’s a time when you just have to live your lives exactly the way you want to and for us that’s now. I hope you both have the heart and the courage to do that too.’
In the thirty seconds after Eileen had left that church with Trevon, she’d had the heart and the courage, but the old doubts had swept right back in again and she’d jumped into a cab on her own and made her way to the fancy big late lunch that Zara and Millie had organised in Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant in the Bellagio, overlooking the fountains and one of the most romantic experiences of her life. At least, it would have been if she hadn’t avoided all opportunities to be alone with the one man that she was suddenly desperate to stare at, to speak to, to touch. The feelings had ambushed her, and she needed time to process them. This was Aiden’s friend. He was too young. Too gorgeous. Too special. So close to her heart that he would almost certainly break it. And that wasn’t a path she could even contemplate going down in case it hurt her, hurt him, hurt her son.
She’d been grateful, then, when the late lunch had turned into group drinks in Aiden’s suite, which had then evolved into a party. There had been dancing. There had been singing. There had been much laughter and the kind of banter that was great for the soul. At Millie’s insistence, they’d all continued the revelry through the night and come straight here at 5 a.m. for the British contingent’s flights. There had been safety in numbers, no chance to be alone with Trevon. She knew she was going to have to discuss what had happened with him at some point, but not yet. Not when she still had no idea what to say.
‘Is it just me or does everyone look totally depressed?’ Zara asked dolefully, watching Aiden, who was on his way back to them carrying a tray of coffees. The London flight, then on to Glasgow, was going to be the first to leave, with the South Carolina one not going until the afternoon, but of course they’d come along to say goodbye to Colin, Brenda and their girls.
