Page 68 of The Path to the Last House Before the Sea

Had Stan had a change of heart and realised that he did have feelings for her, after all?

I am in love with you, Magda. I was thrown by your declaration of devotion, but later the truth hit me like a bolt from the blue. Of course I’ll always love Penny, but I’ve realised that I’m in love with you, too.

Magda held her breath, hope flickering in her battered heart.

‘Well.’ Stan cleared his throat again. ‘I’m a man of few words when it comes to emotions. You know that. Penny was always the one who dealt with the emotional side of things, so I don’t know how best to say this.’He paused, breathing heavily. ‘What I’m trying to say is I care a great deal about you, Magda. You were Penny’s best friend, and you’ve been dear to me since I was a young man. You’ve always been an important part of my life and I’ve realised that I need you in it forever, especially as my life comes to an end.’ He blinked, pain in his eyes. ‘The truth is, I’m scared, Magda, and I can’t imagine leaving this world without you by my side. But I know that what I can offer you isn’t fair.’

He swallowed and studied Magda’s kitchen tiles, unable to meet her eye. ‘What I’m saying, very badly, is that I’m terribly flattered that you feel so strongly about me. And so very sorry that I don’t feel the same way. I can’t, you see. Penny was the only woman for me – always was and always will be.’

The last vestige of hope flickered and died in Magda’s chest.

‘But I can’t bear the thought of us falling out,’ Stan went on, ‘and I’m hoping that, when I’m gone, you’ll be there for Jack, because he’ll need you. You’ve always been like a second mum to him. But I understand that it might be too difficult for you to be with me, now we’ve had our chat.’

He stood up slowly, shuffled across the kitchen and took hold of Magda’s hands. He’d never held her hand before and the feeling of his skin warm against hers took her breath away.

‘I’ve made an idiot of myself,’ she whispered, tears running down her cheeks.

Stan squeezed her hands. ‘Not at all. You told me something very precious that has touched me deeply. I’m just sorry that I can’t…’ He petered off, still holding on to her hands, and took a deep breath. ‘I do love you, Magda, but I’m not in love with you. And I quite understand if that’s not enough for you.’

Was it enough? Magda wondered, tears dripping off her chin.

She looked at him, the man she’d secretly loved for so long. He’d been young and handsome and energetic when she’d first known him; now, he was old and tired, his body increasingly ravaged by an illness that didn’t care. His hair had turned from brown to silver and his face was lined. But he was still the same Stan who was so precious to her.

It felt – rather dramatically, she acknowledged – as if her whole life had been leading up to this moment.

The years of watching Stan and Penny together and the nights she’d cried herself to sleep scrolled through her mind. The chances of romance with other men – good men – that she’d turned down, and her move to Heaven’s Cove to be closer.

But she’d always known, in her heart of hearts, that her love for Stan was unrequited – it had had to be.

And now the man she’d known in his prime, when he was afraid of nothing, was terrified of what was to come.

She couldn’t leave him. Not when he needed her.

Magda nodded. ‘Yes,’ she told him, gently pulling her hands from his grasp. ‘It’s enough for me.’

It would have to be.

THIRTY-TWO

ALYSSA

The tunnel fall seemed to go on forever. Alyssa couldn’t move and was finding it hard to breathe. Your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That’s what she’d heard. But as bricks and earth thundered down, all she could think was, I’m sorry, Jack. You were right and I was so very wrong.

Not the most comforting of final thoughts to have. But, fortunately, when the rumbling and thudding stopped, Alyssa realised she was still very much alive. She couldn’t move but that was because Jack had thrown himself on top of her – however, he wasn’t moving either.

Why had she dragged him into the tunnel? He’d been perfectly fine before she came on the scene, with her ridiculous romantic stories about people long gone and her gung-ho ‘trust your instincts’ attitude.

She’d been so sure, after what had happened in her life before Heaven’s Cove, that it was a good idea to follow her gut feelings all the time. But now Magda was heartbroken after following her advice. And Jack was terribly hurt, or maybe even dead.

Alyssa began to sob but her breath caught in her throat when Jack groaned and moved on top of her. He groaned again and rolled off her body, onto the ground.

‘You’re alive,’ she cried, flinging her arms out into the inky blackness. Her fingers touched skin and she felt herself being pulled into an embrace. She hugged Jack on the dirt floor and snuffled into his chest, clinging on tight. Her ear was flat against his body and she could hear his heart thumping. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I think so,’ he mumbled into her hair, coughing in the dust that was turning the air to soup. He shifted beside her and she heard his fingers scrabbling in the dirt.

‘Got it,’ he said hoarsely, as a beam of light hit their faces. ‘I dropped my phone but it’s not broken, thank goodness.’

He swept the beam in a circle revealing a wall of rubble behind them. A pile of bricks and dirt had fallen where they were. But if they’d been just a few feet further back, almost the whole lot would have landed on their heads. Alyssa shuddered, trying not to imagine their buried, broken bodies. They’d had a lucky escape.

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