Heidi nodded, clambered over him and ran down her stairs. Moments later she came back up carrying a large glass jar that looked like it had pasta sauce in it at some stage.
She took the button from his hand and dropped it into the jar. Jason took in all the blue and pink buttons and only saw one white one she’d just dropped in. He understood that this was her baby jar.
He took the jar from her hands and put it on the floor next to the bed.
“Come here,” he said, tugging on her hand.
She came willingly and clambered back over his thighs and stretched the length of him resting her head on his shoulder.
“Thank you for staying with me.”
“Always. You need me, I’ll come running, sweetheart.”
Chapter Fourteen
Heidi
It had been a couple of weeks since Jason had stayed with Heidi after Mr and Mrs Bloater’s baby was born an angel. She hadn’t seen him since, and she’d never felt so lonely. It had nothing to do with his efforts and everything to do with her misery. She couldn’t shake the awfulness of that day. Her boss had told her to take a couple of days but she feared if she did she would never go back and the other mums needed her support, now more than ever.
Heidi hadn’t replied to any of his messages or taken his calls. She worked until she collapsed from exhaustion, ate bland food and went to bed, only to repeat it the next day and the next. There had been a soft knock at the door most evenings but she hadn’t answered the door. She didn’t look out the window, but she just knew it was Jason.
Many of her patients were first-time mothers and were scared at the news. There was no chance to keep things private on Copper Island. It took all her energy to support them.
The day of the funeral had arrived, and she hated standing there in a black dress waiting for the time she had to trudge up the hill to the church and look a tiny coffin and grieving parents. She had never suffered loss in her family. Freya said she’d take the day off school to come with her, and Heidi didn’t have the fight in her to say no.
When the knock came, she picked up her handbag, grabbed her keys off the hook and opened the door. She was stunned to see Jason Turner in a black suit, crisp white shirt, thin black tie and shiny shoes. His hair had been tamed, and he held out his hand. She looked at his face and it showed all the pain she felt. He’d known loss, and she instantly knew how he felt when he father died too early in life. The sob in her throat almost choked her, and she went back on one foot and held onto the door.
“You don’t have to talk to me at all the entire time. I said I’d go with you to the funeral and here I am. I’m never going to disappear on you again.”
His hand was still there in mid-air and she felt her knees buckle. He was at her side in a flash, arm around her waist. It stayed there while he moved her out of her home and closed the door checking she had her keys. They walked arm in arm down the road, following the other residents also dressed in black to the church set back a few roads from the quayside. When they arrived it was standing room only. It was the way of the island. Someone died and everyone who could get there turned up to pay their respects. Jason never spoke a word and never left her side the entire time. Just like he promised. He’d promised to do that long ago, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. If someone had asked her, Heidi wouldn’t be able to say what the inside of the church looked like on that dank and dismal day. Her head was down and her eyes on her shoes. Several people came to speak to her. Instead they talked in hush whispersto Jason and some either squeezed her bicep and touched her shoulder.
They walked back to her home and stood at the front door. Jason held out his free hand, and she dropped her keys into his hand without a word spoken. He pushed the key in the lock and opened the door wide. Hooking the keys up he positioned her in front of him, hands on her hips. His front up against her back. Jason’s hands felt like they burned her skin, like a brand. Silently she dropped her bag on the floor by the foot of the stairs and turned in his hold. She reached her hands up to his cheeks then stood on tip toe and kissed his mouth. For a second he was stunned but then kissed her back.
Breaking away, she let the tears fall. “I’m sorry,” she whispered over his lips. “I’m sorry I didn’t come and see you at your dad’s funeral. I should’ve come and stood by your side, held your hand, just like you’re doing now.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart.”
Heidi needed to feel something, anything after the numbness of the last two weeks. She kissed him again, deeper this time, letting it get a little wild as she pushed off his jacket. He took the hint and bent his legs, he hitched her up but her dress was too tight. She giggled for a second instantly feeling guilty for laughing on a sad day.
She felt her face flush with embarrassment.
“Are you okay?” Jason whispered.
“Can you stay for a bit?”
“I can stay as long as you want,” he replied.
Heidi dropped her chin and turned her back, she blindly reached for his hand. When he slipped his fingers through hers, she kicked off her heels and led him up the stairs to her bedroom. When she reached the side of the bed, she turned and stared up at him. He was searching her face, smoothing his hands over his cheeks until his fingers were in her hair. Now thatshe was looking at him, she could admire the handsome man he had turned into. The last time they had done this, she felt like they were young, but they weren’t.
The person stood before her was a man, strong, loyal and who was looking at her with so much emotion she wanted to cry. Why didn’t he want her all those years ago?
Heidi pushed the thought aside and closed the distance. She was a girl back then but now she was one hundred per cent woman.
Heidi tugged at his tie, pulling it the wrong way, tightening it to strangle point. He curled his fingers over hers never breaking eye contact and pulled off his tie. He undid the buttons of his shirt and shrugged it off letting it fall to the floor. Heidi pulled in a breath looking at his chest. It was magnificent. She lifted her hands and placed them over his pecs and smoothed them from side to side, catching his nipples that had hardened at her touch.
She marvelled that she’d made a man like him excited enough his nipples hardened.
Leaning in, she placed a kiss on his sternum over his heart and then stepped back.