If only there was an ‘ours.’
She managed to smile. ‘Mine. Then I can change out of these clothes.’
Walking into the cottage, she could feel the need to tell him the truth like a weight pressing down on her. ‘Farlan—’
‘What’s this?’
She frowned. He was holding an envelope with her name on it. ‘I don’t know…’
His eyes flickered round the room. ‘It wasn’t here when we left.’
She opened it. ‘It’s from Andrew. It’s the photos from the ball.’
Glancing down at them, she felt a rush of warmth for her neighbour. He was a good man, but she didn’t want him.
‘How did he get in?’
Farlan was standing beside her, his green eyes narrowed.
‘I keep a spare key under the flowerpot.’
‘So he just lets himself in?’
‘Yes, he does. Because he’s a friend.’
The memory of what Farlan had told her in the car merged with the suffocating intensity of her need to tell him the truth.
‘And that’s all he can ever be.’
Dropping the photos onto the table, she took his hands in hers.
‘The other day you asked me why I turned Andrew down, and I told you it was because I didn’t love him. That was true a year ago and it’s still true now.’ Her hands were shaking. ‘But that wasn’t the only reason.’ She took a breath. ‘The main reason I can’t marry Andrew, or any other man for that matter, is because I love you, Farlan. I’ve never stopped loving you.’
Her fingers curled around his.
‘I know we broke up a long time ago, but in my heart I’ve always felt married to you—and I think you feel the same way.’
Farlan stared at her in shock.
Nia loved him.
And he loved her.
He felt a rush of relief.
It was that simple. All he had to do was tell her.
But it wasn’t that simple.
His eyes flickered over the photos spilling across the table. Yes, she loved him. Andrew Airlie had seen it the moment he’d looked at the pictures of the two of them. That was why he’d dropped them round.
And Farlan loved her.
But less than an hour ago he had been crumpled up in a car, swamped by a past that still defined him.
He thought back to how he’d driven away from the cinema. He had been a slithering mass of panic. It had spread through him with a speed and a savagery that had been impossible to stop, and left him blind to anything but the need to flee.
Only he couldn’t outrun the past and the pain.