Page 35 of Trusting His Heart

“Rebecca, call me Bec, there is nothing worth giving up your career again. You’ve worked too hard to get back on your feet. You and me … there is nothing between us anymore. We had our shot and it didn’t work out.”

Geoffrey rushed out the door. Only when he pulled into his driveway did he realized Bec was stranded at the coffee shop with her car at the surgery.

Damn.

He looked at his phone. He wanted to believe she would be okay, catch a cab back to her car. The time flashed up, peak hour for rides going to the airport, she might be waiting for hours.

“Sorry, back in a sec to give you a lift,” he texted her and drove back. He refused to let his fear and negativity leave Bec stranded.

He saw her walking along the side of the road, head down and hand bag swinging. Clearly, she left right after him and either didn’t receive his message or didn’t care.

Geoffrey knew he’d been a self-satisfying jerk. The cancer diagnosis threw him and he had tried to impress himself and his friends by pushing everyone away and dealing with it on his own.

He pulled alongside Bec and tried to catch her attention through an open window.

“Go away!” she called out, picking up her pace.

Geoffrey slammed on his brakes, the squeal catching her attention, he pulled to the side and jumped out of the car, running to her side and grabbed hold of her arm.

“Bec, wait. I’m sorry. I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted, get out of my face and my life. Go ahead and fight it on your own and either live or die on your own. That’s what you’ve always wanted, right?” Bec threw off his arm and kept walking.

Geoffrey grabbed her again, “Bec, I don’t know what to tell you, I should never have left you here – get in the car so I can take you back.”

“You hurt me, more than I thought possible,” he recoiled as she screamed at him. “At first when you broke up with me I was hurt and confused but I loved you and wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“Bec, get in the car, give me a chance to explain or at least to take you back to your car.”

Bec’s tears refused to stay hidden anymore, falling unwanted down her cheeks. Emotionally spent and screamed out. She closed her eyes, yet the tears still fell.

She allowed Geoffrey to escort her into the car, for a moment welcoming his touch as he seated her and adjusted the seat belt around her. The familiar smell of the leather seats moulded around her body were more reminders of what she lost.

They pulled into the carpark and she quickly got out, rushing to her own car. Before she opened her door, Geoffrey stood before her, pulling her towards him, crushing her in his embrace.

It wasn’t fair, he smelt so – well – he smelt like Geoffrey. His scent invaded her senses and all the memories of meeting him, the plane trip, seeing him at the dinner and becoming a couple came flooding back. Actually, she admitted to herself, they had never gone away. After he broke her heart, she tried to lock all the memories inside a box in her heart. Only to be opened when she either felt self-indulgent and melancholy or if she was ever over him.

“Geoffrey, you have done your good deed for the day and delivered me back safely to my car. Thank you, now get the hell out of my life as quickly as you wanted to a month ago.”

It took all her resilience to try and push him away and escape his arms.

“Talking to you is hard and what I am about to do is the hardest thing I have ever done.” Geoffrey’s face so close to hers, she could almost taste his lips.

“Talking to me is hard? Then don’t bother and let me go.”

“Rebecca, I can’t let you go. I want you by my side, I want you in my life. Admitting that, saying those words is harder than watching my wife die, harder than living alone for the last 10 years and harder than hearing I have cancer.

“Rebecca, Bec, it took pushing you away for me to know I don’t want to live without living and without loving anymore.” He fought back his own tears, “It took you coming back to me today for me to realize I am the last person you might want to see but I need you to know.

“Rebecca, I love you. I want you in this fight with me.”

Bec saw the honesty in Geoffrey’s eyes before they closed and knew they deserved one more chance as his lips opened to take her and she surrendered to his kiss.

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