Page 104 of Booked for Summer

He tried not to flinch as she studied his face. ‘Is she coming back?’

‘I don’t know. I doubt it.’

‘Did you ask her to?’

‘Of course.’ Maybe he’d gone about it in a half-assed way, but he was done being rejected. Fucking done. Even if he’d dropped to his knees and pleaded with her to return, how long before their relationship fizzled out? Before she realised she could do a lot better than the emotionally stunted local pariah?

‘Did you tell her you loved her?’

Oh, no. He wasn’t doing this. Moving past her, he walked into the kitchen and threw open the fridge door. ‘I don’t.’

While he gazed, unseeing, at the jars of condiments– how many things did she need to spread on her bread?– he felt her come up behind and wrap her wiry arms around him. ‘Time to stop being that angry young man, afraid to let people in.’

With a deep sigh, he closed the fridge door. ‘I’ve tried. It’s not that easy.’

She reached to clasp his face. ‘You’re my grandson and I know you. You’re strong. You can do anything you put your mind to. Your father, mother, April, those boys at school, Sabrina… their rejection wasn’t a reflection on you, it was a reflection on them. They were too ignorant, too selfish to realise what they lost by not including you in their lives. Jade is neither.’

‘It was her choice to leave.’

Her expression turned sad. ‘But you gave her nothing to stay for.’

‘I gave her the bookstore she loves.’

She patted his cheek. ‘I know you’re smarter than that.’

Smart was one thing. Scared was another. So it was good it had ended on his terms, wasn’t it? That he’d been in control this time. ‘The house is ready,’ he said, anxious to change the subject.

She smiled. ‘When do you want to move in?’

‘As soon as possible.’ He paused, picturing himself back on the island, walking past the bookstore, sitting on Sconset beach. Having a drink at the resort bar. Jade would be everywhere. ‘I think I’m going to find it very hard living in Nantucket without you.’

She patted his hand. ‘Then I’ll get packing tomorrow.’

‘What about John? Will you be okay leaving him?’

‘You don’t need to worry about me. John’s got a boat. I’m sure I’ll be seeing him. But you won’t be happy unless you persuade that lovely girl back. And if my senses haven’t failed me, she won’t need much persuading. Now, go and relax while I fix us both some supper.’

Head feeling heavy, his heart even more so, he dragged himself over to her sofa and slumped down on it. He wanted to rest, to forget everything, but his brain wouldn’t let him. For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to do. He knew what hewanted, but he didn’t know if he had the backbone, the resilience, to go after it. And even if he had, how did he get there?

Without conscious thought, he powered his phone back on and dialled the one person he thought could help him.

‘Are you phoning as my boss?’ Jeremy answered. ‘Because if you are I need to tell you, respectfully, that you’ve majorly fucked up.’

He shut his eyes and leaned back against the sofa. ‘And if I’m calling as your friend?’

‘Then I’ll take out the “respectfully”.’ There was a pause. ‘You know nobody can replace her, don’t you? And I’m not just talking about the bookstore, which I’ve asked Ramona to take care of, by the way. Temporarily, I hope.’

The thought of the store being managed by someone else tore at Liam’s heart.

‘Of course whether you can be replaced is up for discussion,’ Jeremy added, an edge to his voice that Liam didn’t appreciate. ‘Jade will be hard-pressed to find someone else with your particular brand of broody, stubborn, closed off bloody-mindedness. Then again, she may prefer to go for a warm, sensitive, romantic sort?—’

‘I get the picture,’ he gritted out, that tear in his heart now a full-blown rip. This is what he’d set himself up for? Not just life without her, but life without her in the knowledge he’d stood back and allowed it to happen. She’d said she wanted a man to fight for her, yet he’d been too scared of injury to risk going into battle. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, but are you around tomorrow? I need to pick your brains.’

ChapterThirty-Six

She’d not even been back a week, but already Jade knew the answer to the question Liam had posed to her.Go home, pick up your life and work out for certain what you want.

Then again, she’d known before she’d come home that she’d wanted to go back to Nantucket, to live a life with him in it. Even if it meant flying back on that tiny Cape Air nine-seater Cessna, which had given her more than a few moments ofholy shit, alongside the amazing views. What she couldn’t do, was go back to Nantucket and live a life there without him. She loved the island, had grown closer to some of the people than she’d thought possible in such a short space of time. But it was Liam she was in love with.

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