He couldn’t stop talking. ‘And I know it’s ridiculous because we live on different continents and both have jobs and careers. I don’t expect you to pack up and live here. In fact, the last thing I’d want is for you to come here and resent me for asking you to. But I had to tell you. I had to tell you that I love you and you’ve stolen a piece of my heart.’ He lifted his hand to his chest.
She blinked and he could see the hesitation on her lips and his heart twisted inside his chest. He’d taken her by surprise. She hadn’t been expecting this.
For a few seconds she said nothing. He’d said too much.
All his insecurities from Zoe’s desertion flooded back into his brain as if he’d just flicked a switch. Her look of disdain and disapproval. Kristie’s face didn’t look like that—hers was a mixture of panic and...disappointment? She was disappointed he’d told her he loved her?
He was a fool. He should never have said anything. He’d just been overwhelmed with how proud he was of her that he’d obviously stepped across a whole host of boundaries he hadn’t realised were there.
There was a laugh beside them and he pulled his hand back sharply.
‘Oh, the Hot Highland Doc. I’d heard you were in the school.’
Rhuaridh turned to the teacher who’d just walked up beside them. ‘What?’
The teacher just kept smiling. ‘The kids talk about you all the time.’
He shook his head, thinking he hadn’t heard correctly. ‘What did you call me?’
‘The Hot Highland Doc. It’s a great title, isn’t it? Better than the Conscientious Curator or the Star-struck Astronaut. Pity the geography is off.’
She gave a shrug and kept walking on down the corridor.
Rhuaridh tried to process the words. He spun back to face Kristie. ‘She’s joking, right?’
Kristie looked a little sheepish. ‘I... I didn’t have any say in it.’ They were the first words she’d said since he’d told her he loved her.
He stepped back and looked down at himself. ‘Hot Highland Doc? That’s how you’ve described me to the world? Of all the ridiculous descriptions...’ He shook his head again. ‘And we’re nowhere near the Highlands!’
He was overreacting. He knew that. But right now he felt like a fool.
A few things clicked in his brain, comments he’d heard people say but hadn’t really picked up on at the time. ‘I can’t believe you’d let them do that.’ Then something else crossed his mind. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t warn me.’
* * *
Kristie breathed. The air was stuck somewhere in her throat. He’d just told her he loved her, then almost snatched it back by inferring they could never work. It was like giving her a giant heart-shaped balloon then popping it with a giant pin.
Her stomach was in knots. For a few seconds there she’d thought the world was perfect and their stars had aligned, but then Rhuaridh had kept talking. Was he talking himself out of having a relationship with her? Had she only been pleasant company while the filming was going on?
It was as if every defence automatically sprang into place. ‘It’s not up to me to tell you. The TV series hasn’t exactly been a secret. Most of the island watches it. If you weren’t such a social media recluse you would have picked up on it in the first month.’
Her brain was jumbled right now. Everything felt so muddled.
‘Was any of this real for you? You tell me you love me one second, then tell me how ridiculous our relationship is in the next? Who does that? What kind of a person does that sort of thing?’ The words were just spilling out in anger. No real thought because all she could feel right now was pain. All the things she’d considered for a half a second seemed futile now. Coming to Arran? Accepting the book deal and giving up the TV job? How on earth could she leave LA? She was crazy for even considering anything like that.
There was a flash of hurt in his eyes then his jaw clenched.
The anger kept building in her chest, turning into hot tears spilling down her cheeks.
She stepped back and looked him straight in the eye. Her words were tight. ‘And...we’re done. Goodbye, Rhuaridh.’ She had to get out of there. She had to get out of there now.