‘Kaspar...?’ She gaped, her mind struggling to work.
Thirty-five weeks? She still had a month to go. They had to be Braxton-Hicks, right?
‘There are probably a million ways I could do this that would make the moment romantic, and meaningful, and everything you could want,’ Kaspar plunged on, oblivious. ‘But right now I can’t think of a single one of them. So I’ll just say it as simply and as clearly as I can. I love you, Archie. Not as the mother of my child, but for you. I love, and I’m in love with, you.
‘I thought I was broken, and beyond repair, but you found a way to put me back together, and although I may not always show it in the right way, I promise you that I’m learning and if you give me another chance I’ll ensure you never regret it. Not for the rest of time.’
The pain was spreading through her abdomen even as her heart felt as though it was sprouting wings ready to take flight. Whoever knew it was possible to feel so frightened and yet so elated all in the sam
e moment?
‘Archie...’
‘I love you too, you idiot,’ she managed. A combination of clenched teeth and a joyful sob. ‘But do you...do you think we could do this later? Only... I think the baby is on his way.’
One day, she knew, she would remember the look of marvel on his face. She would remember this feeling that she was ready for anything, and she would remember this moment as the perfect start to the new chapter of her life.
‘Of course our baby is on its way.’ The smile was wide, his eyes gleaming, and a look of almost triumph was in his gaze, making her feel very powerful. ‘She clearly approves of the moment and can’t wait another few weeks to join us in our new future.’
EPILOGUE
SHUFFLING FORWARD ON her bottom, Archana Athari took the hook from the front of her harness and fitted her static line through the eye on the floor of the tiny light aircraft, pulling hard to ensure it was locked securely in place before Kaspar double-checked the line for her.
‘Are you ready?’ Kaspar called over the roar of the engines and the wind. ‘Remember, aside from our one tandem jump together four years ago, you haven’t jumped in a decade. And a three-year-old and a one-year-old make the most critical audiences ever.’
‘I know.’ She grinned at the thought of her son and daughter down on the ground, waiting for them both. ‘According to your eldest, those go-carts you made them last week are ruined because you put pictures of the wrong animated films on the side.’
She had no idea whether Kasper heard her or not but it didn’t matter. He understood anyway, and his lazy, sexy grin of response sent a wave of adrenalin coursing through her, just like it always did.
Sliding forward, still on her bottom, to the door of the plane, Archie stuck her feet out and leaned forward. The blur of the ground rushing by a few thousand feet below snatched her breath away. For a moment she froze.
‘Go!’ he bellowed.
And then she offered Kaspar a cheeky wink, yelling against the rushing wind, ‘Race you to the bottom!’
Grasping the doorframe with one hand and the metal spar with the other, Archie pulled herself out of the aircraft, twisted and let go. Gravity took over.
Every single thought went from her head.
Spread-eagled in the air, her back arched as she fought for stability, the plane seemed to disappear in seconds, its increasing height above her the only indication that she was falling. And then the jolt of the ripcord opened her chute and reminded her of where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.
One-one-thousand.
Two-one-thousand.
Three-one-thousand.
Archie looked up and her heart slammed into her chest. The canopy hadn’t fully deployed.
I probably counted too quickly. I hope I counted too quickly. What did they say about cutting away? I don’t want to have to do that. I’ll count again and then I’ll act.
Her mouth parched and her chest hammering, Archie reached up for the guides that would help her steer for landing. And when she looked again, even before she had chance to count a second time, the parachute opened fully with an ear-splitting crack!
And then the complete, utter silence.
She felt weightless. Perhaps not being in space weightlessness, but certainly as though she was just floating down, the sky going on for ever around her.
She’d finally done it. Not just for her young son, and younger daughter—who were waiting down on the ground with a very pregnant Katie, and who had been going on about wanting to see her skydive ever since they’d seen the photo of that first tandem jump of their mummy and daddy—but also for herself and for her father.