by Holly Martin
‘So we know he isn’t just saying he loves you because he saw it was your wish.’
‘Dougie is not going to say he loves Eden for a joke,’ Bella insisted. ‘I know he never takes life seriously but he would never hurt Eden like that.’
‘OK, so if it’s not a stunt it’s either that he does genuinely love her or… the wish came true.’
They sat there in silence for a moment. They all knew how unrealistic that was.
‘OK, let’s say for one moment that the wish did really come true. You said there were three wishes. If one wish comes true, I think it’s merely a coincidence rather than magic, but if the other two come true too, well then maybe there is something else going on. What were the other two wishes?’ Freya asked.
‘They were silly wishes, just something I wrote down to prove to Dougie that the whole Mistletoe Cove legend was complete rubbish.’
‘And how likely is it that they would come true?’ Bella said.
‘Not likely at all, almost impossible I’d say.’
‘Well then we’ll soon see,’ Freya said.
‘I still think it’s option one,’ Bella said. ‘That’s much more realistic.’
‘I suppose,’ Eden said, breaking off a chunk of the pastry and putting it in her mouth.
‘What are you so afraid of?’ Freya asked.
‘That it will end. I’m afraid of letting myself believe in this relationship and then watching it get taken away from me if Dougie changes his mind or reveals it’s all some big joke or if… the wish stops working after midnight.’
‘There are no guarantees in love, Eden,’ Bella said. ‘But that’s why you should enjoy what you have now because who knows what’s around the corner.’
Eden wasn’t convinced. She felt like she needed to protect herself from Dougie and not entering into a relationship felt like a good way to do that.
‘OK, let’s imagine that throwing wishes into the blowhole does make them come true, but instead of wishing that Dougie loved you, you wished you could fly. And it came true. But with a limited time,’ Bella said. ‘Would you just never fly, knowing how disappointed you would be once the wish ended, and then you’d never experience that heart-soaring joy of flying through the air, dancing on the clouds and swooping through the skies? Would you keep your feet on the ground, too afraid to make that leap, and then, after a few weeks or months, you just watch that wish fade away?’
Eden smiled as she thought about this. ‘No, I’d fly everywhere, over the seas and mountains, over foreign lands and then I’d do it all over again.’
‘Well then. Go and enjoy being loved by Dougie for however long that it lasts. This is what you’ve wanted for your whole life, go and experience it, kiss him till your lips are numb, take him to bed and enjoy that amazing sex you want so much, take baths with him, go for walks or picnics or whatever else was on that list you gave me the other night.’
Eden’s grin grew as she realised Bella was right. This was everything she ever dreamed of. And if it was going to come to an end then she needed to enjoy it now.
‘I need to go and talk to him.’ She stood up and rooted around in her bag to pay for the coffee and pastries.
‘No, my treat,’ Bella said. ‘I was glad of the distraction from the wedding planning.’
Eden paused. ‘Bella, are you OK? You seem so stressed out about this wedding. With all the big charity events you’ve organised in the past, I’ve never seen you like this before.’
Bella sighed. ‘It’s turning into a complete nightmare if I’m honest. But look, let’s not talk about this now. Go get your man and I’ll tell you all about it at our weekly dinner on Tuesday.’
‘OK, if you’re sure?’ Eden said.
Bella nodded. ‘Go, I’m fine.’
Eden hugged them both and had turned to go when Freya snagged her arm.
‘Tell him you love him. Believe me when I say there is nothing worse than telling someone you love them for them not to say it back. If you love him, then tell him.’
Eden nodded, not really sure if she could find the courage to do that, but she would give it her best shot.
Chapter Fourteen
Dougie stared at the piece of paper in shock. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But as he read the words for what felt like the hundredth time he couldn’t help the huge grin that spread across his face. This was quite possibly the best news that he’d ever had.
No, it wasn’t all good news, certainly some of it was going to cause him a bit of a headache, but that last line on the page made the rest of it feel completely doable.
He had woken up that morning to a cold and empty bed, which was hugely disappointing since he had hoped to carry on where they had left off the night before. The fact that Eden wasn’t even in the house showed that she was probably having some regrets about what had happened. He had told her that he loved her and she hadn’t said it back. But she had spent the night kissing him in his bed which showed she had some feelings for him. He guessed she was just scared. Somehow he had to get her to trust him.
He heard the front door slam open and he quickly threw the paper into his bag before running downstairs to greet her.
She ran straight to him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tight. He hugged her back.
‘Well that’s the best greeting I’ve ever had.’ He tilted her chin up to face him and, cupping her face, he kissed her sweetly on the lips. A huge smile spread across her face.
‘Do you still love me?’ Eden said, doubt filling her eyes.
He smiled and kissed her again. ‘Of course.’ He paused, waiting to see if she would say it back, but she was too busy smiling to say anything. Happiness shone from her. It had been way too long since he had seen her smiling this much. He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. He didn’t want her to lose that smile but he needed to know how she felt, he needed to hear the words. ‘Do you love me?’
As expected, the smile faded away. Fear and worry filled her face and she looked down, staring straight at his chest before she took a deep breath and answered.
‘Yes, I’ve always been in love with you. Years before our first kiss, I was in love with you then. And that love has never gone away. In fact, it has only deepened over the years.’
Euphoria like he had never known filled him, quickly followed by acute pain. He knew what it felt like to love somebody but not be with them. That pain in his chest had never gone away. Eden had been in love with him almost her entire life, she’d experienced that pain too, and the worst thing was he’d done that to her. His parents emigrating wasn’t his fault, realistically he couldn’t have stayed on Hope Island without them at the age of eighteen. He had no house, no job and it had always been his dream to live in America, but maybe he could have come back sooner. God, if he’d known that she felt this way, he would have.
‘I’m sorry.’ The words weren’t enough but how did he even begin to apologise for causing a lifetime of hurt?
She looked up at him and smiled sadly.
‘Don’t apologise, it’s not your fault. Well, it’s a little your fault but I still love you.’ She laughed.
He smiled. ‘Well I’m here now and I intend to make up for lost time.’
He bent his head and kissed her, that incredible feeling of joy spreading through him as soon as their lips touched. She moved her hands from his back, sliding them round to his hips and then gently caressing his ribs. He was suddenly really pleased he hadn’t had a chance to get dressed yet, her soft touch against his skin was pure heaven. He slid his hands to her shoulders and realised with frustration that she was wearing way too many clothes again. It didn’t matter though, the kiss was more than enough. God, he was never going to tire of kissing her, even if she was completely overdressed.
The kiss quickly escalated from being sweet and tender to something much more heated. He found himself unzipping her coat again and slipping it off her shoulders. He wanted to touch her, feel her warmth next to him.
She pulled back slightly to look at him. ‘Make love to me,’ she said against his lips.
Oh god. The thought of that was enough to bring him to his knees.
‘I can’t.’
Her face fell, her beautiful smile fading away.
‘Honey, it’s not that I don’t want to, believe me I do. But I was planning on wooing you first.’
‘Wooing?’ The smile was back.
‘You know, flowers and—’
‘You’ve brought me flowers.’ Eden nodded towards the white roses he had bought for her a few days before, sitting pride of place on the mantelpiece.
‘Dates then. Restaurants, fine wine, fine food.’
‘And that sounds lovely but we can still do all that and make love.’
He pretended to be shocked. ‘I’m not making love to you in the restaurant, honey, I’d like to do that somewhere a little bit more private.’
Eden laughed. ‘Well that would certainly give the islanders something to talk about if we did.’
‘When I make love to you for the first time, it’s just going to be me and you.’
‘And the string quartet,’ she said.
‘Yes, them too.’
Eden giggled and leaned her head against his chest. ‘Oh god Dougie, you have no idea how much I want you. Twelve years and this all felt like an impossible dream. And now it’s happening I don’t understand why you want to wait.’
‘I don’t want to rush things.’
‘Twelve years, Dougie! I hardly think that we can be accused of rushing things. Besides, you hadn’t even been back three days and you told me that you loved me. That’s a little fast, don’t you think?’
‘Yes, I hadn’t planned on doing that. I’m not sure what came over me.’
Eden frowned slightly and he leaned down and kissed the frown between her eyes.
‘I want to be the man that you deserve; I want to do this right.’
‘What does doing it right mean?’
‘Well, I want it to be romantic.’ An idea came to him. ‘I want to make love to you in front of the fire in a room filled with candles.’
Eden’s eyes lit up and he knew he’d said the right thing. ‘That does sound lovely.’ She ran her fingers down his chest. ‘We could do that now.’
Dougie groaned. ‘You’re killing me. How about tonight?’
Her whole face lit up with a huge smile. ‘I can wait until tonight. But I do have the day off today, so how do you plan to woo me in the meantime?’
He thought about it for a moment and another idea came to him. ‘I have some ideas but why don’t we start by taking a bath?’
The smile on Eden’s face grew even bigger. ‘Now that sounds like an excellent place to start.’
He took her hands in his and kissed them both. Then, with her hand still in his, he led her upstairs and into the bathroom. Fortunately Eden had a large corner bath which looked like it might be big enough for the both of them. He put the plug in and started running the water. Eden had lots of different-coloured bottles lining the edge of the bath and he picked up a creamy-looking one and realised it was marshmallow bubble bath. He smiled; this was where she got her wonderful scent from. He unscrewed the top and took a sniff, the smell sending a kick of desire straight to his gut. He poured some under the hot running water and immediately bubbles started to form on the surface. She had quite a few candles on the edge of the bath and, wanting to add to the romance of the moment, he set about lighting them. Noticing there was a jar of what looked like rose petals, he unscrewed the lid and poured a few of those into the bath too. He stepped back slightly to view his efforts and, pleased with what he had achieved at very short notice, he turned back to face Eden.
His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw that she had got completely undressed and was standing before him stark naked. Words failed him. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, she was his best friend and she was offering herself to him on a plate. She looked vulnerable, awkward and a little scared and his heart ached for her. He knew there was a part of her that didn’t believe that he loved her, that was expecting him to tell her it was all a joke at any moment – he could see it in her eyes, he knew her so well. He quickly moved towards her, gathering her in his arms and kissing her hard. There was no better feeling in the world than her warm naked body against his. He lifted her and she wrapped her arms and legs around him as he pinned her to the door, not taking his lips from hers for even a second. Waiting until tonight was a terrible idea.
He shifted her tighter against him and she gave a little moan of protest against his lips. He pulled back slightly.
‘The bath,’ Eden said, breathlessly.
‘To hell with the bath,’ Dougie said, moving to kiss her again.
She giggled. ‘The water.’
‘Oh crap,’ he said. He turned around to see that the water level was rising fast. He quickly lowered her to the floor and ran to turn the taps off. It was quite obvious from the huge mountain of foam in the bath that he had used too much bubble bath as well. He would quite likely lose Eden in there. ‘Well, the bath is ready.’
‘Shall we get in?’
Dougie had just been about to make love to her against the bathroom door so he was glad of the distraction. He didn’t want that for their first time together. Remembering his plan to woo her, he nodded.
He looked down at his boxer briefs and wondered whether to take them off. She was naked so should he be too? Although if they were both naked, cuddling in the bathtub, any restraint he did have would quickly vanish. He looked at her and she arched an eyebrow at him, obviously knowing what he was thinking.
‘I think I’d better leave them on,’ Dougie said. ‘I don’t want you taking advantage of me.’
Eden laughed. ‘It will take more than a piece of black cotton to stop me from taking advantage of you, but if it makes you feel safer then go ahead.’
He smiled and then turned back to the bath. He clambered over the edge and got in and immediately got back out again.
‘Jesus Christ that’s hot!’ Dougie said, jumping around on the cold tiled floor to try to cool his feet down. God, nothing was going smoothly. He hadn’t planned for any of this to happen. He was simply going to kiss her on Mistletoe Cove and see what she did and now it had escalated in the most wonderful way but he wasn’t prepared for it and everything was going wrong.
Eden, giggling at his antics, moved to the bath, pulled out the plug to let a little water out and added more cold to cool it down. She swirled her hand around inside the bath, and when she was happy with the temperature, she turned the tap off and then nodded for him to get in.
He climbed back in and now he was more comfortable with the temperature he lay down. She clambered in too and he opened his legs so she could sit between them and rest her back against his chest. But to his surprise she was facing towards him as she kneeled down and then lay down on top of him, leaning her face on his chest.
She was submerged, almost to the top of her shoulders, so he lapped water over her to make sure that she was warm. Her black curls fanned out in the water behind her, making her look like some kind of beautiful mermaid. He ran his fingers through her hair relishing the feel of it, then he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, leaning his head on top of hers.
‘Is this what you want, is this OK?’ Dougie asked.
‘This is perfect,’ she said, quietly.
He got the feeling that this made her sad but he didn’t know why. The very last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
‘Are you OK with this, with us?’
He stroked her hair from her face and she looked up at him.
‘Yes, it’s just so unexpected, it’s hard to get my head around. You’ve never shown any feelings for me before.’
‘I’ve always had feelings for you.’ Had those feelings always been love? They probably had, only he had never realised it until he had left her behind. Living in New York, to his mind the greatest city
in the world, had always been his dream, but when he’d first moved and he should have been having the time of his life, all he could think about was her. Those feelings had never gone away. But he knew she was right: he’d never told her how he felt so all this must have come as a bit of a shock to her.
‘I was over there, you were over here, I didn’t see how we could possibly make it work. And there was no way I was going to come over here on holiday, kiss you, make love to you and then leave again, no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn’t be that man. You’re my best friend and I would never do anything to hurt you.’
‘But having feelings for somebody and being in love with them are two completely different things. It feels like a big leap. Is this anything to do with last night?’
What was the right answer here? He needed her to believe that this thing between them was real, he needed her to trust in him, but equally he wanted her to believe in magic again and here was his opportunity to do just that.
‘Last night was magical. When I kissed you underneath the fairy lights and a thousand stars, I never wanted anyone or anything as much as I wanted you right then.’
She stared at him, confusion and doubt filling her eyes, and he decided to change the subject slightly.
‘Look, I know this all feels sudden for you as I never told you how I felt but you were in love with me for twelve years too and you never made your feelings clear either.’
‘I was scared, I still am. I didn’t want it to change things between us. I didn’t want you to stay away because you were avoiding me. And I guess, ultimately, I didn’t want to face the rejection. If I never told you then I’d never have to be rejected by you because that would hurt too much. Not knowing was far easier.’
He stroked his hands down her back. ‘Well, if this relationship is going to work then we need to be honest with each other.’
He looked away for a moment because part of his plan involved not being honest with her at all. Even if it was for the right reasons.