by Lucy Gordon
"I love you, Luke-"
"Until the end of time?"
"Yes," she said huskily. "Until the end of time-whenever that is."
He brushed a stray lock of hair back with tender fingers. "What a strange thing to say. Time will never end, just as we will never end."
Suddenly she was clinging to him. "Oh, Luke-Luke-"
"Darling, what is it?"
"Hold me. Don't let me go."
She wanted to cry out, "Don't let me go into that dark place that might take me away from you. I'm not ready-''
"I'll never let you go," he promised.
She searched his face. "Luke, you really do love me, don't you? You'll love me whatever happens?"
"Nothing could happen to make me stop loving you. Nothing at all."
They drove back to Manhattan Beach in the late afternoon. At Pippa's suggestion they left collecting Josie until the following morning. She planned to use this final evening to explain things to Luke. All the way home she was working out how to tell him gently that in a few days she must have an operation that would either save her or not. And if not-she wouldn't think about that. They would come through this and have a future together. For a moment the wall of black ice was there again, barring her path. She covered her eyes with her hand, refusing to see it. In her newfound love and strength she would not admit that it could all be taken away.
The sun was setting as they reached home. "Just time for a dip in the sea," Luke said.
"All right." She would tell him over supper.
Just as everything had been silver the night they'd swum in the pool, now everything was deep gold. The beach was emptying fast, the tide was out, and if they turned their backs to the land there was only the empty sea and the sky.
"It's like having the world to ourselves," Luke said.
"If we could only keep it like this." She sighed. "With just Josie. Nobody else."
"We will. We'll create our own place. We're lucky. I'll make it up to you, Pippa. You'll be the happiest woman alive. What is it?''
"Nothing," she said quickly.
"You flinched. What did I say?"
"You imagined it. Let's go back."
They began to walk slowly up the beach, hand in hand. At the last moment he stopped and turned, his arms around her waist, leaning back to look at her, golden in the light of the setting sun.
"You're beautiful," he said. "You've always been beautiful, but never so much as at this moment, my love."
"My love," she echoed softly. "My love, oh, my love."
"My love, as you've always been." He drew her against him.
"Darling, people will see."
"Let them. Everyone's crazy on this beach, anyway. Kiss me, Pippa. We have so much to make up for."
Keeping his mouth on hers he took her hand and began to tread carefully up the rest of the beach. The few drifters who were out at that time of the evening parted, laughing, to let them pass. The sun was growing richer in color as it dipped to the horizon, and for a moment it seemed as though the whole world wanted to stop and gaze on this golden couple who walked in a golden light to a golden future. Whatever the secret was, it seemed as though they had cracked it.
Across the Strand, then up the walk to the doorway, still with his lips on hers, his body warm against her skin.
"Quickly," he murmured. "Let's get inside so that I can have my wicked way with you."
"Mmm!"
Entranced by him, she failed to notice the two figures standing by Luke's door. And she was almost on top of them before she realized that it was Frank and Elly, their faces set in masks of frozen disapproval.
Chapter Eleven
"Frank, Elly," Pippa whispered the words, "how…how lovely to see you."
"We were worried about you," Elly said, putting her arms around Pippa. "Darling, we have to talk-"
"Later," Pippa said quickly. "Let's get inside first."
Luke opened the door, and when they were all inside he turned to Frank and Elly, smiling. It wasn't the moment he would have chosen to be interrupted, and they weren't his favorite people, but he was, as he said afterward in some bitterness, happy enough to greet the devil himself.
"We met before," he said, taking Frank's unresponsive hand. "I was at your wedding. Elly-" he embraced her "-good to see you looking so well."
"We're all well," Pippa said quickly. "I've never felt better in my life. Now admit it, you two. Aren't I a big improvement on that pallid creature who left London?" She was talking too fast and in an unnatural voice, but she had to warn them off the dangerous subject.
"You've got a good color," Frank conceded grudgingly.
"Good color!" Luke exclaimed indignantly. "She looks great." He planted another quick kiss on her cheek. "Honey, put some coffee on while I-while I put something on." He vanished hastily.
"Darling, are you mad?" Elly asked as soon as he'd gone. "Staying here when your operation-"
"I'll be home for that. It's not until the end of this week."
"You should be resting to be ready for it," Frank almost shouted.
"Frank-please-you know why I came."
"Yes, I do," he said bitterly, "some foolishness about Josie meeting her father-who's taken no interest in her since she was born."
"That's not true. He's supported her."
"But he's never bothered to meet her, or you wouldn't have needed to take this crazy trip, risking your life-"
"What was that?"
They all turned to see Luke standing in the door. He was wearing jeans, but his chest was still bare, and it was rising and falling as though he'd just received a shock and was finding it hard to breathe.
Oh, God! Pippa thought. Not like this. I never meant him to find out like this.
"What did you say?" he asked Frank. His face was very pale.
"I said that Pippa is a very sick woman, was probably dying-before she ever came here-"
"That's not true," Pippa said quickly. "The doctor said I had a good chance-''
"He said you had a fair-to-middling chance if you had the operation quickly and didn't do anything stupid," Frank growled. "He didn't reckon on you taking a long flight over the Atlantic and another one back. Do you know how dangerous that is? As for what's gone on since you've been here-can you honestly say you've taken care?"
She barely heard him. Her eyes were on Luke's face as he turned to her. He looked puzzled, as though he heard the words but could put no meaning to them.
"Pippa?" he said quietly. "What is this crazy man talking about?"
"Frank isn't crazy, Luke. He's just blown things up out of all proportion. I've been a bit poorly recently-"
"Yes, you told me, asthma-"
"Asthma be blowed!" Frank exploded. "She's got mitral stenosis. You know what that is, do you, Danton? It's a malfunction of the mitral valve of the heart. It's a killer. It killed her mother. It's killing her."
Luke might not have heard him for all the notice he took. His eyes, full of a dreadful question, were still fixed on Pippa's face.
"Yes," she said despairingly. "It's true."
"But…I don't understand. You can't be ill. I've seen you every day, and you've been fine."
"You mean she's fooled you into thinking she's fine," Frank said with a sneer. "I don't suppose it's hard to fool you where your own convenience is concerned."
"Please, Frank," Pippa whispered. "This isn't the way."
"And what is the way? Making it easy for him the way you've always done? All these years you've let him be a father on easy terms because those are the only terms he's interested in."
"Frank, hush!" Elly protested. "Josie may be about somewhere."
"No, she's with my parents," Luke said.
"How convenient," Frank said disparagingly. "A real takeover bid-now that it suits you."
"What do you mean by that?'' Luke demanded.
"I mean I've seen the Web site. Making use of your own child to make yourself look good. How could you let him do it?" He turn
ed on Pippa.
"Josie wanted it, Frank. It made her happy."
"You don't give a child something that's bad for her just because she wants it. She needs adults who'll protect her, not exploit her for their own cheap ends."
"If it wasn't for Pippa I'd knock you down for saying that," Luke said in a harsh voice. "I love my daughter."
"Your daughter," Frank sneered. "That's rich, coming from you. What kind of father have you been? Sure, you've supported her, but money's easy. When did you do anything that wasn't easy?"
"I'm not arguing with you. I've told you, I love my daughter, and I love Pippa. We're going to be married. The past is the past. If Pippa and Josie can forgive me for it, then it's nobody else's damned business. Including yours."
Frank completely lost control. "You fool!" he screamed. "Don't you understand, she's dying! If you'd treated her properly all those years ago she wouldn't have had to take this insane risk to find you now."
"Frank-" Pippa and Elly both tried to silence him together, but he was like a man possessed.
"That operation is her last chance," he screamed, "and it's a very small one. What are you going to do when she's dead, eh? What's all your fine talk going to be worth when she's dead?"
Watching Luke, Pippa realized that until that moment he hadn't fully taken it in. He didn't speak, but his face seemed to grow withered before her eyes. Her head was beginning to swim. "Frank, that's enough. I think you should go now.''
"I'll go when you come with me."
"I'll come when I'm ready. Please, Frank, you shouldn't have done this. Just tell me where I can find you."
"At the airport hotel," Elly said.
But Frank wasn't about to give up. "I still think we should wait and-"
"Go!" Pippa said with soft vehemence.
Elly drew him away, leaving Pippa and Luke alone together. She could hardly bear to look at him. He was breathing hard like a man who'd been punched over the heart.
"Dear God!" he said softly.
"I was going to tell you tonight.''
"Or tomorrow? Or the next day?"
"Yes, I've been putting it off. But it would have been tonight, because I have to go home. Oh, Luke
I'm so sorry you found out this way. It wasn't meant to happen."
She touched him. He was trembling.
"I can't take this in," he said at last. "How long have you known?"
"A few weeks. I didn't know what to do. Suddenly there were so many things to be thought of, all at once."
"You could have picked up the phone and called me then. I could have come over to England-"
"Would you have?" she asked wistfully.
"Of course I would. There was no need for this. I'd have come at once. I might have been able to help you cope with all those things you mentioned." He looked at her distantly. "But you never even thought of turning to me, did you?''
"No, I didn't," she admitted.
"Well, I guess I only have myself to blame for that," he said in deep bitterness. "You don't have to say it."
"I wasn't going to."
There were tears in his eyes. He thumped his fist on the breakfast bar, then pulled her into his arms and held her fiercely. "Dear God!" he wept. "Pippa, Pippa!"
"It's going to be all right," she said, clasping him. "It has to be. We can't lose each other now."
"Can't we?" he asked hoarsely. "Frank seemed very sure."
"Frank's an old woman, he's panicking."
They clung to each other. Pippa was remembering the fear and shock that came with the first discovery. She'd faced it long ago, and from the reserves of strength she'd built up since, she could help him now.
But she'd forgotten the anger. In the first few hours of knowing she might die, she'd been swept by a terrible rage. It was different from the lively, combative spirit with which she'd always faced the world. That had been a searing, blistering fury against whatever had done this to her and to Josie, the little girl who might lose her mother. She had wanted to scream and scream at an unjust fate.
But that wasn't in her mind now, and when she felt Luke shaking violently in her arms, she didn't at first realize that he, too, had been swept by devastating anger. So his next remark came as a shock.
"But at least you told Frank the truth, which is a damned sight more than you did with me."
"I couldn't help that. It was forced on me by circumstances."
"But all this time you've had a secret agenda, haven't you? I thought we were close again, but how close could we be when you were hiding such a secret? Why did you really turn up here suddenly?''
"Because I knew I might not have very long, and I wanted to make sure you met Josie while there was time. All these years-I thought you might have come to see her just once. But you never did, and if…if Frank and Elly have to become her parents-they're good people-kind and reliable, and she'll need that. But I wanted her to know you, too. I wanted you to meet her and love her so that you'd never want to lose touch with her."
He released her and drew back, looked at her strangely, as though trying to work out who she was.
"Luke," she cried, "please try to understand. I did what I had to."
"Yeah, I get that."
"Then what? What is it you blame me for?"
"Deceiving me," he said quietly. "Letting me live in a fool's paradise." He gave a mirthless laugh. "The operative word being fool. All this time-telling myself fairy tales about a second chance-you should have been honest with me."
"When? And how? The day I arrived, maybe? When I walked through that door and you threw your arms around me because I was your escape route from Dominique. I knew then that you were the same man I'd known, only it was a bit weird because eleven years had passed and you shouldn't have been the same."
"And afterward? You knew I was falling in love with you. I was making plans for our future, and you let me make them although you knew there might not be a future-dear God!"
Her temper flared. She faced him squarely, and there was a steely look in her eyes that was new to him.
"And just what should I have told you, Luke? That I might be dying so that you could be careful not to love me? I should have warned you to hold off and not let your feelings get too deep in case you got hurt? You're very good at holding off, aren't you? Good at protecting yourself by not getting too involved. That's how you survive. By never getting too close to anyone. Generous, great-hearted Luke, with a smile for everyone and a heart for nobody."
"That's not what I meant," he cried angrily.
"I think it is. You'd have liked to know, so that you could give just so much and no more."
He paled with shock. "I don't believe you said that to me," he whispered.
"Why not? It's how it's always been with you. Over the years I've gotten used to it. Only I'd forgotten-since I came here, I'd forgotten-and that was very silly of me-"
Appalled, they stared at each other and at the abyss that yawned between them. They no longer looked the same to each other. He saw a woman who'd snubbed him to take the hardest journey alone, who'd spoken of love while secretly despising him. She saw a man who'd fooled her with pretty promises it wasn't in him to keep. Luke's promises were always pretty, she thought in anguish. Best hung on the wall to be admired, but not for everyday use.
She wanted to tell him that she hadn't meant the last words. They were needlessly cruel because she was angry and bitter. But the seconds passed and she couldn't speak.
"I think I'll go out for a while," he said after a moment. "I need to do some thinking."
"Sure," she said listlessly. She didn't look up when the door closed, and the next moment she heard his car drive away.
Luke had meant to be away for an hour at most, but once on the freeway he seemed to go into a hypnotic trance in which there was nothing but a stream of traffic coming from infinity and going to infinity. He was cold with shock, terrified, disorientated, an alien in a strange universe.
All the familiar places ha
d vanished, or tilted into ugly, unrecognizable shapes that taunted him with his own uselessness. Somehow the earth had turned back on its axis, and his life seemed to be whirling past him in reverse order. It was yesterday and he was completely happy with the woman he loved, their hearts and minds open to each other-except that hers wasn't open to him at all.
It was last week, and she was walking through his door with Josie, transforming a life that had been growing increasingly empty and pointless. He wanted to reach out and seize that moment, because if he could do that everything might still come right. But it was whisked out of his hand and away into the darkness, and suddenly he was back eleven years, saying goodbye at the airport, leaving her, knowing it was all wrong. And that was the moment where he really wanted to stop the world. And it was too late.
He lost track of time. The darkness turned into dawn and still he drove. He stopped for gas and returned to the car like a zombie. When he finally halted at a motel he had to detach his hands from the steering wheel one finger at a time.
He checked in and called home but there was no answer. She must be asleep. He called his parents, who said Pippa and Claudia had collected Josie hours earlier. She'd seemed cheerful and normal, and somehow that made his heart sink because it reminded him how hard it was to know what Pippa was really thinking. But then he recalled that Claudia had been with her, and he felt better.
He tried calling her again and again, but there was never a reply, and at last he fell asleep with his hand on the phone. At first light he started the long journey back, driving as fast as he dared.
He told himself that now he'd got everything under control. There was no way he would let her fly back to England. She must stay here, and he'd book her into the finest hospital with the finest surgeons. He would get her the best of everything, and when she left the hospital he would wait on her hand and foot, caring for her as no woman had ever been cared for before. She would get well, and their future would go on as before. He tried to shut out the sound of the phone ringing and ringing without answer.
It was late afternoon when he reached his house. Even before he opened the back door he could see a shadow inside, and relief swept over him. "Pippa!"