He smiled. ‘I can’t think of a more beautiful location, to be fair.’
‘It is beautiful.’
She smiled then winced at the throbbing in her feet. She leant over and squeezed her toes again.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
‘Oh… These shoes pinched a bit. I think it’s because my feet were hot.’ She grimaced as she rubbed the skin of the big toe on her right foot. ‘My toes are sore.’
‘Come here.’ He set his glass down on the bench, then reached for her foot and gently placed it on his lap. ‘Which ones?’
‘All of them.’ She shifted on the bench, so she wasn’t twisting her body, and when Wyatt massaged her toes, her body went weak. ‘Oh, god…’
It had been an age since anyone had touched her feet, except for now and then when she went for a pedicure, and that was different. It was formal, awkward at times, and not the same as having her feet massaged by Wyatt.
I should stop this, she thought.I really should. Right now.
But Wyatt knew how to touch her feet and as he massaged the arch of her foot, then rubbed at her small toes, she felt all the tension in her body ebb away. She could easily have closed her eyes and fallen asleep right then and there.
‘Still got it, have I?’ he asked with a crooked smile.
‘I’m afraid so,’ she conceded, wishing it wasn’t true.
‘Shall I do the other one too?’ He held her gaze, and a tiny shiver ran down her spine, as soft as a feather tracing her skin.
‘P-probably better not. I’m likely to fall asleep, and I don’t want to do that.’ A small smile tugged at her lips. ‘I find it far too soothing.’
‘No problem.’ He leant over and got her shoe then slid it back on her foot. ‘Just like in Cinderella,’ he said.
‘What, like the ugly sisters?’ she joked.
‘No, like Cinderella when the prince finds that the slipper fits.’ He rolled his eyes and laughed.
‘But you’re not my prince, are you? So, it doesn’t matter that the slipper fits.’
‘About that…’ His Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘I need to tell you something. It might make you feel even more distant from me than you already do. In fact, it could make you hate me.’
She removed her foot from his lap and lowered it to the grass again. A million thoughts raced through her head as she tried to imagine what he needed to tell her. It must be bad for him to say that.
Was he going to confess that he’d cheated on her while they were still together?
That he had never loved her, and it had been an act?
That he was ill and dying and?—
‘Edith!’ He shook his head. ‘It’s nothing bad about us, I promise, so please don’t look so worried. It’s more… It’s the reason I am the way I am, and it goes back to my childhood.’
‘Oh… Right.’ She inclined her head slightly then sighed with relief. ‘OK. Do you want to tell me now?’
‘I do. Today. But… I think we’re needed down at the café. Can we talk later?’
Edith had a moment to tell him to get lost, that she never wanted to entertain another thing he had to say after how he’d behaved recently, but she didn’t. She loved him too much to dismiss him when he told her he wanted to speak to her. For years, she’d waited, and now he was offering an explanation. She had to hear him out, or it would drive her mad. She had to hear him out and give him a chance to help her make sense of what had happened. It would, she hoped, help her heal from now on.
‘Let’s talk later then.’ She bobbed her head. ‘I want to hear what you have to say. I hope it will help us both.’
‘I hope so too.’ He stood, then held out his hand, and she took it.
Her foot felt better after the massage, so her shoe was more comfortable, but she still kept hold of him for support as they headed back to the café where their friends were waiting.
