Reunited at The Altar

She suddenly realised what he was planning. ‘You want me to go out on a boat?’

‘Not piloted by me, but yes.’

‘The Broads?’ The medieval peat diggings that had turned into a waterway system over the centuries would hopefully be calm, like a millpond. As someone who’d grown up at the seaside, Abby knew she should’ve developed a decent pair of sea legs, but within five minutes of being on a boat she usually turned green. The swell of the ocean, even at its mildest, always made her queasy.

‘I was thinking the North Sea,’ he said. ‘It’s been a while.’

Five years. Unless he’d gone out on a boat some time this week, which she doubted—she rather thought he might have told her about it—she was pretty sure Brad hadn’t been anywhere near a boat since Jim’s death. So was this his idea of closure?

Then again, he’d just been talking about coming back for a few days. Spending more time with her.

It left her more confused than ever.

‘What do you want, Brad?’

‘Right now—a boat trip to see the seals at Blakeney Point,’ he said.

She knew he’d avoided her real question, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the answer; she wasn’t sure she could answer the question herself. Plus she liked the idea of the trip; it would be fun to go out and see the summer colony of common seals basking in the sunshine on the spit of sand, with their huge eyes and pretty faces. It had been years since she’d done it. ‘OK, if we can get tickets.’ It was a popular trip and weekends were usually heavily booked.

‘I’ll get tickets.’

He was so sure. And it was easier to go along with him, to buy bottled water and seasickness tablets and take the medicine to give it time to work.

He took her hand as they walked back to the car, and it felt weirdly like their early dates, when just the touch of his hand against hers made her feel as if fireworks were going off in the sky.

This was dangerous. Totally stupid, in fact. OK, so they’d spent last night together and she had no regrets about it whatsoever—but, even though Brad had told her to ignore the obstacles, she couldn’t get away from the fact that his life was in London and hers was here. She wouldn’t expect him to give his up for her, just as she wasn’t prepared to give hers up for him.

Wouldn’t it be better just to part now, as friends?

By the time she’d gathered her thoughts, he’d already driven them to Blakeney, they’d picked up their tickets and were walking across the marshes towards the harbour.

‘Just for today,’ he said, ‘I think we should forget the past. We’re not going to pretend it didn’t happen—but we have to accept that we can’t change it. All we can do is learn from it and move on. I know I hurt you and I’m sorry. I was too young to deal with what happened. Which honestly isn’t an excuse, by the way, it’s an explanation.’

She nodded. ‘I understand. I was too young to deal with it, too.’ And she needed to be fair about this. He wasn’t the only one to blame. ‘We both made mistakes. I hurt you, too.’ She’d left him when he was vulnerable and in pain and totally unable to deal with his feelings, when she should’ve tried harder to support him. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Apology accepted.’ He stopped and spun her round to face him, then kissed her.

His mouth was soft and so very sweet, and it sent a shiver of pure desire through her.

‘Enough of the past. Today’s all about you and me discovering a bit more about who each other is now,’ he said. ‘Let’s have some fun.’

He climbed easily into the boat and helped her in beside him, then slid his arm protectively round her when they sat down. The captain took the boat out to the narrow strip of land at Blakeney Point, where everyone could see the seals basking on the sand. Some were lumbering along in an ungainly fashion; others were just sunning themselves. There were a few groups of a cow, a bull and a pup; Abigail knew that the pups on the land with their mothers were less than three weeks old, still needing to be fed.

Around the boat, seals were gliding through the water, looking far more elegant than they did on land and totally at ease; others were frolicking in the shallows, splashing their flippers in the water. It was utterly charming and Abigail lost herself in the moment, enjoying the sight.