‘It’s really...very beautiful,’ Jake managed.
He tried to add something more but suddenly found it was impossible. His chest was swelling even more, and there was an unfamiliar ball lodged in his throat. It was almost a relief that Brady was turning to Flávia, his cheeks suddenly flushed, looking apologetic.
‘I was going to draw it for you,’ he mumbled an apology. ‘But I just thought that Uncle Jake might like it... Maybe for his office?’
‘I think it’s a really lovely gesture,’ she assured him, taking Brady’s chin in her hand and dazzling him with her brightest, most beautiful smile.
And Jake thought he was the only one who heard the slight thickness to her voice.
‘I’ll hang it on the wall for all my patients to see,’ Jake managed brightly at last, his chest now constricted, as though it couldn’t make up its mind how to feel.
Whatever he’d expected from this summer programme in Brazil, however he’d imagined it going medical-wise, he had never, in his wildest dreams, thought that it might improve his fractured relationship with his nephew. And he knew he had Flávia to thank for that.
‘Come out with me,’ he announced abruptly, the moment Brady had left to look for something—Jake realised belatedly that he hadn’t even been paying attention.
‘Sorry?’
Startled amber eyes flickered to his and something deep inside Jake shifted, and burned.
He had no idea what he was doing. In a couple of weeks, he and Brady would be gone. Back to England. Back to normal life. And yet here he was, proposing dates as though any relationship between him and Flávia actually had a future.
It was nonsensical. And still, he waited impatiently for her answer.
* * *
‘You’re taking me to the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo?’ she guessed the moment he ushered her off the subway.
‘I am,’ he confirmed. ‘You were born in this city, yet Maria told me that you haven’t been since you were about six.’
‘It wasn’t the rainforest,’ she quipped. ‘So you can hold your shock.’
She hadn’t intended to sound so sharp, but it was almost touching that he’d planned this out. Certainly, it was more than she’d been expecting, as if this...non-thing between them was more than just sex, and more than just Brady.
Just like yesterday morning, sitting in that café sharing breakfast with Jake and Brady. He was sharing more and more with her, first offering her glimpses of the secrets he held inside his head, and then almost inviting her in.
It was intoxicating to feel as though she was some kind of confidante to him. The only confidante he’d ever had. And it all felt so remarkably right. So easy.
Yet, wasn’t that what made it all the more dangerous?
It made her let her own guard down, and let him in. It made her forget that he would be leaving soon, but when she remembered, pain slammed into her, hard and painful. And given that she’d known the situation from the start, it had no right to do so.
No right whatsoever, a voice shouted loudly inside her head.
Only, it didn’t sound as angry as it was trying to. It just sounded frightened and lost, which made no sense. Everything should just go back to the way it had been before they met. Except that a part of her couldn’t even remember what that had been.
Didn’t want to.
‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. It’s a lovely thought for a date. Really.’
Jake didn’t answer; instead he brushed a stray hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Excruciatingly tenderly. It was all she could do not to tilt her head and lean her cheek into the warmth of his palm.
‘I think you’ll love it, so trust me, okay?’
She nodded wordlessly. The insane part was that she did trust him.
Then, taking her hand in what felt like a ridiculously intimate gesture, he pulled her body into his and they walked along the street together until they turned the corner and the stone steps and glorious pillars of the theatro came into view.
They stood for a moment, drinking in the stunning architecture, until Flávia turned and realised he had been studying her instead.