It was only when I heard the barks that I started to worry she’d found trouble. I picked up my pace to a bumpy run along the increasingly overgrown and waterlogged trail, the déjà vu only kicking in as I veered around a thick patch of brambles and hurtled straight into a giant puddle.
Four lurching steps into the water, my walking boot caught on a submerged tree root, sending me flying forwards. Thankfully, my arms instinctively shot out to brace my fall, keeping my face above the water as I splashed onto my hands and knees.
I guessed it even before I’d dared to raise my mud-splattered head and look for him.
There, about three metres away on the other side of the puddle, my dog spun in a frenzy of ecstasy with her best friend. A short distance beyond that, Gideon was standing, seemingly frozen in shock.
It was only as I began clambering to my feet that he jolted back to life, not even bothering to skirt around the edge of the puddle but wading straight up to me, placing his hands underneath both shoulders and lifting me upwards until my face was directly in front of his.
‘Sophie?’ He scanned my features, his expression incredulous, mouth already twitching in a smile.
‘Hi.’
‘What are you doing here?’
‘Walking my dog.’
We looked at each other for a moment, the air suddenly becoming charged. I was acutely aware of his hands still resting against my sides. Slowly, hesitantly, his face drifted an inch or two towards mine, before he tilted it back again, as if unsure.
I knew, in that moment, how completely, utterly sure I was about Gideon Langford.
My head, my past, my hopes and fears had finally caught up with my heart.
I reached up two filthy, dripping hands, wrapped them around his neck, and stretched up to press my lips against his.
He resisted for only a single, stuttering heartbeat before returning the kiss. His arms flung around me, pulling me up against his chest before one hand moved to cradle the back of my head as weeks of mutual longing and withheld passion poured out.
Eventually, we broke off to catch our breath, those river-deep eyes boring into mine before we rested our foreheads against each other, steadying ourselves.
‘Oops.’ I reached up and wiped a streak of mud from his cheek. Given the state of my hand, that only made things worse.
‘Oops yourself.’ Gideon grinned, smudging his wet cheek against mine.
‘Hold on, I’ve got a tissue somewhere.’
I looked down at my jeans’ pockets, unsure of how to extract a tissue with my dirty hands, but Gideon gently led us out of the puddle then produced a small towel from his rucksack.
We wiped our hands and faces, leaving our sopping-wet shoes and clothes as a lost cause, and found a fallen tree to sit on while the dogs scampered in and out of the bushes.
‘Are you here for the day?’ Gideon asked, shifting along the trunk until there was a good few inches between us. ‘Does Hattie know?’
I took a deep breath.Here goes everything.
‘Hattie doesn’t know I’m walking along the river today. But she knows I’m here in Middlebeck. Or, more specifically… living at Kalani’s house.’
He pulled his head back but said nothing.
‘I moved in with her a few weeks ago. I’ve been looking for a house to buy, but nothing’s turned up yet.’
He continued watching me, face a careful mask. ‘Go on.’
‘I accepted the job with Maid Marian’s Garlands and have been working there since I moved. My business is officially closed down and I sold the motorhome. I’ve also been seeing a therapist. I even went to my old house, where I grew up, and back to Leeds, to where I was when my family died.’
‘You’ve been living in Middlebeck for weeks? Have you seen Hattie?’
I nodded. ‘I’ve visited Riverbend a few times.’
He frowned. ‘But you didn’t want to see me. That explains a lot.’
