‘So I did.’ She looked nervously at Jeffrey. ‘But I’ve got no sense of balance.’
‘I thought you might have learned something from T’ai Chi.’
She had, but nothing that would help with rollerblading. ‘It still isn’t the meaning of life.’
‘But it’s a start,’ he said comfortably. ‘I’ve bought them for us all. I thought we could do it as a family.’
‘Even you?’
‘Even me.’
The sight of Jeffrey on Rollerblades would definitely be one worth seeing.
He looked at her endearingly. ‘From little acorns and all that…’
Acorns. Wood. Growth, blossoming, reaching up. A fresh start.
‘I suppose we could give it a go,’ she said, a huge smile breaking out on her face.
‘However,’ he said with a twinkle in his eye, ‘I don’t think you’ll be needing them just yet.’ Jeffrey dumped the box on the floor. ‘And I don’t think you’ll be needing this either.’ Tenderly, he slipped her dressing gown from her shoulders, caressing her skin, making her shudder with expectation.
‘Jeffrey…’
‘Kate,’ he said with a sigh, stilling the movement of his hands. ‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.’
She was aware that she was shivering inside. ‘What?’
‘I hate being called Jeffrey. All my life I’ve been called Jeffrey and I’ve always loathed it.’
‘You’ve never said.’ Here was another big surprise.
‘Well, I’m saying it now. Do you think you could start calling me Jeff ? Or Jeffers?’
‘Like Natalie did?’
‘Did she?’ He frowned. ‘I hadn’t noticed.’
She looked at her husband’s guileless, honest face. Was that the face of a man capable of betraying her? He couldn’t possibly have done. Not Jeffrey. Jeffers. Could he?
‘Anything else?’ she asked.
He grinned. ‘I think that’s enough to be going on with.’
‘Thank goodness for that.’ Kate exhaled the breath she had been holding for the past few minutes. Straightening up, she saw the corner of another pink love note peeping out from under her pillow.
‘Why, Jeffers,’ she fluttered her eyelashes, waving it in front of him, ‘is this for me?’
The grin froze on her husband’s face. His handsome features blanched and there was a fleeting look in his eyes that she couldn’t fathom. Fear? Regret? Remorse? For some unknown reason, Kate felt an icy chill round her heart.
Jeffrey gently took the pink sheet from her hand and crushed it with his fist. ‘It’s just words, Kate,’ he said in a voice that didn’t sound entirely steady. Her husband tossed the crumpled pink paper to the floor. ‘I want to do everything in my power to show you how much I love you, how much I need you.’
He threw the duvet on the floor, letting the cool night air caress their bodies. ‘Have I told you, Kate Lewis, that you are the most beautiful woman on earth?’
‘Not recently, Jeff Lewis,’ she said and the words caught in her throat. In a moment of still, calm clarity, Kate suddenly realised that in the search to find herself how close she had come to losing Jeffrey. To losing everything.
He slid down the bed, feathering her body with kisses, teasing her, planting kisses on her toes, her feet, her thighs, hot tongues of flame licking her body. Fire. Passion. Kate held her breath, shuddering, delighting in the sensations. As she turned her head, she caught sight of the perfect white rose in the moonlight. Ben’s image drifted before her eyes, laughing with her, holding her, loving her. She could fly now. He had taught her that she could do anything. All she had to do was try. All she had to do was believe in herself. She could soar across the sky and find him, whenever she wanted to, wherever he was…
Kate squeezed her eyes shut, whispered, ‘Goodbye,’ once more to Ben. Wrapping her arms around her good, kind husband she held onto him as tightly as she could so he wouldn’t see that she was crying. Kate Lewis had finally found herself.
First U.S. edition March 2006
MORE TO LIFE THAN THIS
A Red Dress Ink novel
ISBN: 978-1-4603-1168-4
© 1999 by Carole Matthews.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, incidents and places are the products of the author’s imagination, and are not to be construed as real. While the author was inspired in part by actual events, none of the characters in the book is based on an actual person. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
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