Page List

Font Size:

‘Hey, I lived in a caravan park. For months. You can live in the outback.’

That was true. He was Theo Callisthenes, the CEO of a billion-dollar cruise ship company. He could kick outback ass.

‘Okay then.’ Mind suddenly made up, he nodded. ‘I’m doing it.’

‘Atta boy,’ Ari said, slapping him on the back then pulling him into a bear hug.

Love might feel like a rupturing peptic ulcer, but if Tiffany loved him back then he’d stock up on anti-aids and take it like a man.

* * *

Three days later, Tiffany was in the stables rubbing down Maximillian and chatting to her mother, who was rubbing down her horse, Moonshine. They’d been out riding all morning, helping with fences, and she was looking forward to a long, cool drink of the Pimm’s and lemonade her mother had made up in a jug in the fridge.

They’d talked a lot the last month, her mother coming over most days, and although things would probably never be the way they were, they were better, and she was happy for that. Tiffany didn’t want to still feel angry with her mother till the day she died, not when that had been such a punch to her gut with her dad.

And knowing how painful it had felt seeing Theo in those paparazzi pictures a month ago, she had a little more insight into how gutting her father’s betrayal had been for her mother.

‘Tiffany?’

Freezing mid-brush with the curry comb, Tiffany blinked. Had she just conjured Theo up by merely thinking about him? Turning slowly, she saw a figure silhouetted against the backdrop of bright blue sky. A very familiar figure, tall and broad, in blue jeans – a first – boots and a button-down shirt.

‘Theo?’

‘Yassas, Tiffany,’ he said as he stepped inside and came closer.

It was him, andgah, he was a sight for sore eyes. She’d asked him to give her space and he had, but as a hot rush of emotion she knew without a shadow of a doubt was love flooded through her system, she realised she’d been such an idiot.

She been ignoring her feelings whilst she worked on her other emotions around her father and the unresolved stuff from her childhood and had figured somewhere deep down that Theo would tire of the wait and move on.

But seeing him again, she was so relieved he was here she almost sobbed.

Love for him poured from her chest as the truth rang clear as a bell. She, Tiffany Wainwright, was in love with Theo Callisthenes. And she had no idea how that was going to work; she just knew she wasn’t scared any more to feel it and that she was going to give it a red-hot try – if it was reciprocated.

She ran at him then, dusty jeans and shirt and smelling like horse, her heart suddenly flying as she threw herself into his arms and kissed him with all the pent-up emotion that had built over the weeks they’d been apart. Taking it as a good sign that he wasn’t stopping her – in fact, he was enthusiastically partaking in their lip lock – Tiffany wanted to drag him to the ground and kiss him some more and demand that he love her back.

She would have, too, had her mother’s amused ‘Tiff?’ not brought her up short.

They broke apart then as if they’d been zapped by a cattle prod, but her hand still clung to his sleeve because she didn’t want to let him go, and also, she was a little too dizzy to stand unaided.

‘Mum,’ she said, feeling very much like they were teenagers who had been caught making out. ‘This is Theo.’ In normal introductions it would be usual for her to explain the nature of their relationship, but Tiffany figured her mother had already worked that one out. ‘Theo, this is my mother, Beverly Martin.’

Thankfully, her mother was walking forward and extending her hand to him, so Tiffany didn’t have to test the solidity of her legs. ‘So, you’re the one my daughter has been mooning over,’ she said with a smile as they shook hands.

Tiffany bugged her eyes at her mother. ‘I have not been mooning.’

‘Maybe not.’ She winked at Theo. ‘But a mother knows when something is up.’ She beamed at both of them. ‘Come inside when you’re ready, I have a nice cool jug of something prepared.’

She left them alone then and Theo promptly gathered her back in his arms, but he evaded her mouth as she stood on tippy toe. ‘Wait,’ he said with a smile. ‘I need to tell you something first.’

Tiffany sighed. ‘Okay, fine,’ she teased.

‘I know you wanted space and if you need more, then I’ll go but not without telling you that I love you.’

‘Oh, thank God.’ Tiffany’s forehead pressed to his chest, and she gripped the front of his shirt standing in his embrace, absorbing those three little words for long moments.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, his lips pressing into the top of her head. ‘I didn’t know how much space was too much space, or even if what I was feeling was love. I knew I couldn’t stop thinking about you and didn’t want to be with anyone else, and Ari had to explain to me that feeling like I’d been sucker punched and brewing an ulcer were classic symptoms of love and I was suffering them big time.’

Circling her arms around his waist, Tiffany laughed as she tipped her chin back to look into his strong face. His whiskers were longer than she was used to, which would have probably looked haggard on anyone else but just added to his charisma.