“Oh.” He kicked a small stone off the path with the toe of his boot.
“Yes, oh,” Bea teased. “But I don’t understand what that’s got to do with us?”
Damn, thought Bea. He wants me to spell it out to him. She sighed. “You told Leilani you aren’t ready for commitment,” she said, feeling exposed and awkward under his scrutiny, but determined to know everything. “That’s why she’s gone, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but I meant with her,” he said, not elaborating further.
She couldn’t think what to say next and knew that as much as she didn’t want to make any more relationship mistakes, this handsome man in front of her was everything she could ever imagine wanting. Bea, unable to say anything else, turned around and picked up a large twig.
After a short silence, Luke stepped up behind her and took her firmly in his arms. “Bea,” he said, his breath on the back of her neck shooting a million neutrons down her central nervous system, sending it into overdrive. “I did tell Leilani that, and I didn’t lie. I was trying to let her down gently. To be honest our relationship, which has been more of a friendship than anything else for a few years now, had dragged on for months longer than it should have done.”
Bea stood silently, dropped the twig and letting her hands wander up to where his arms crossed around her and gently curled her fingers over the taught muscles. “I only started seeing her when I thought you were involved with Tom, and then it was really as friends. Childish, I know, but I fell in love with you so quickly, it took me by surprise and I wasn’t really sure how to deal with it.” He lowered his voice. “We haven’t slept together for a few years now.” Bea raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, but stopped herself from saying anything. She didn’t want to interrupt him, or give him a reason not to tell her everything. “I couldn’t understand why you kept pulling away from me whenever we seemed to be getting close. I know now about Tom and the tipping off business, but then it just messed with my mind. After that night we spent together I hoped everything would be okay.”
“And it wasn’t,” she groaned, resenting Tom more than ever for keeping them apart for so long.
“Enough of that. What’s past is gone and I think we should start afresh.”
Bea smiled. “I couldn’t agree more.”
He sighed heavily, turning her round to face him. “Beatrice Porter or Philips, or whatever your name is now, I love you. Surely you must know that?”
Taken back by his unexpected announcement, Bea couldn’t hide her smile. “How could I?” she asked, unable to take in the enormity of his words.
He held her tightly against him. She could barely breathe, but couldn’t be any happier. “I fell in love with you the moment I saw you at the engagement party,” he admitted, “when you went the wrong way around the palm to see who was talking to you.” He kissed her neck; Bea was relieved he was holding her tightly, so her legs wouldn’t give way entirely.
She turned to face the man who she had desperately tried to forget, the same one who now was doing his best to help her to sort out her financial worries and the man who’d stopped her from becoming involved with Tom’s arrest the previous morning. She knew she loved him more than she could imagine loving any other man. “You love me,” she said making certain she had heard correctly.
“I do.” He nodded, kissing her once again. “Do you think you’d consider marrying me?”
Bea didn’t hesitate. “Yes, I would. I love you, Luke Thornton,” she whispered, enjoying being able to say the words aloud to him.
“And you know I love you.” He took her hand, leading her slowly back towards the house, past the rosemary, its summery scent wafting in the warm air. “Maybe now you’ll take me up on that offer to have dinner on my boat?”
“I think I could do that,” she giggled.
Luke turned to her, thought for a bit and then, taking a piece of the thin green wire from the nearby trellis supporting her honeysuckle, bent it round and fashioned it into a primitive ring. He took her left hand and slipped it on Bea’s fourth finger. “Not the most beautiful of rings, but something to wear until the jewellers open up.”
Bea looked down silently at her grimy hand displaying what to her was the most precious ring.
“So what do you say to my proposal then?” he asked, kissing her fingers one by one.
Bea was barely able to speak. “Does this mean you’ll take me back to the Ecrehous for our honeymoon?” she asked.
Luke smiled down at her, “If that’s what you want, then of course I will,” he whispered, kissing her, just as Bea’s honeysuckle fell away from the trellis. Luke put a hand out to catch it immediately before it collapsed on the granite paving. “I promise you’re in safe hands.”
“So it would seem.”
THE END
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication:
Acknowledgements:
Praise for A Jersey Kiss:
OneJune - Blowing Dandelion Clocks
TwoJuly - A Thorny Issue
ThreeScorching Hot
FourAugust - Sowing The Seed
FiveSprinkling of Sand
SixSeptember - Digging for the Truth
SevenBea Stings
EightOctober - Budding Romance
NineNot A Bed of Roses
TenNovember - Dishing the Dirt
ElevenNever Enough Thyme
TwelveDecember - Twisted Vines
ThirteenCrossing the Pond
FourteenBare Branches
FifteenJanuary - Icy Breezes
SixteenFenced Off
SeventeenFebruary - Pruning the Deadwood
EighteenMole Hills
NineteenMarch - Darkest Days
TwentyApril - Home to Roost
Twenty-OneHeat and Shade
Twenty-TwoFirst of May - Scent of Lilies
Twenty-ThreeSecond of May - Blooming Fabulous
Twenty-FourEighth of May - Moonbeam
Twenty-FiveNinth of May - Archway of Roses
Twenty-SixTenth of May - Final Harvest
Twenty-SevenEleventh of May - Secret Garden
Twenty-EightA New Leaf
A Jersey Kiss (Jersey Romance Series) Page 32