Page 62 of Journey to You

He glanced around, confusion creasing his brow. “You can’t get much quieter than this. The closest couple is twenty metres away.”

She tapped the side of her nose. “Trust me, I know somewhere quieter.”

Sliding his hand into hers, she sighed as their fingers intertwined. This felt right, had always felt right from the first moment he’d held her hand at Colva Beach.

Leading him to the furthest corner of the garden, she pointed to a young Cyprus tree. “I’ve come here a few times over the last week. Seems I do my best thinking here.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You’ve been here for a week?”

“Don’t ask.”

When he opened his mouth to do just that, she laughed. “I was hoping you might get here early, okay? How desperate is that?”

He brushed the barest of kisses across her lips, her eyes welling at his tenderness. But she had to say this, had to make sure he knew where she was coming from.

She slipped her hand out of his, sank down, and patted the ground next to her. “I also came here to think, to figure out some stuff. Seems like every second person in this country is intent on predicting my fortune. I can’t even get a massage these days without the therapist giving me a free glimpse into the future.”

He chuckled, and sat next to her. “So, what’s in the cards?”

She opened her mouth to respond and he held up both hands and waved them in front of her. “On second thoughts, I don’t want to know if they predicted some tall, dark, and handsome stranger sweeping you off your feet.”

He winked, his rakish smile so heartrendingly familiar she leaned towards him without realising. “Unless they mentioned me by name, that is.”

She hugged her knees close and rested her chin on them, staring at the Taj Mahal, a translucent ivory in the dusk.

“Honestly? I’ve done so much thinking this last week I’m pretty sure I can predict my own future accurately.”

She’d sat in this spot for hours; analysing her life, pondering the choices she’d made, knowing she should learn from mistakes of the past in building a better, brighter future.

While she felt safe here, she hadn’t quite achieved the peace she’d hoped for, gripped by restlessness no matter how many hours she tried meditating.

She knew why.

The reason was staring her in the face with concern in his eyes.

“Go ahead. Give it to me straight. What does the future hold for Tamara Rayne?”

Now that the moment of truth had arrived, she baulked. Ethan had surprised her, turning up when she half expected him not to. If he hadn’t come, she’d had some vague, pie in the sky dream, a nebulous idea she’d pondered at great length, debating the logistics of a long distance relationship, wondering if they could make it work.

But she couldn’t shake off the fear that still dogged her, the fear that she’d finally recognised as undermining her relationship with Ethan right from the very beginning.

She shrugged, hugged her knees tighter. “My future is here. I’ve put feelers out and loads of the big newspapers and online sites are after food critics. Plus I can freelance to some of travel magazines and—”

“While it’s great your career is back on track, I’m more interested in you. What does the future hold foryou?”

Us, is what he really meant. The unsaid hovered between them, temptingly within reach if she had the guts to reach out and grab it.

She took a deep breath and shuffled around to face him. In the fading light, with the low-hanging branches casting shadows over his face, she couldn’t read his expression, and she needed to.

He’d come all this way, but there’d been no declaration, no emotional reunion, just two people dancing around each other, throwing out the odd snippet of truth.

Should she put her heart on the line once and for all?

Confront her fear at the risk of losing the love of her life?

“I guess some of my future depends on you.”

He didn’t move a muscle, not the slightest flicker.

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