Page 95 of Under A Sicilian Sky
‘You smelled of her though. It almost made me sick. But I knew she’d come for more. And she didn’t disappoint.’She giggled again. ‘I heard her walking towards your room, so I slipped off my PJ top to make sure I looked naked. The door opened and there we were, you and I, in bed together only hours after you’d slept with her. I heard her gasp, and it was sooo hard not to laugh. But I kept it together. The next day she skedaddled, right on cue. Mission accomplished. And the best part? You had no idea! You were totally oblivious. I headed back to my room once she’d gone, and before you even realised I’d been there. I’m a genius. Or so people keep telling me.’
‘You bitch! Why the hell did you do that? That’s tantamount to sexual assault.’
‘Nuh-uh. I didn’t touch you, not in a sexual way. I just snuggled and it was so cosy,’Shelby said in a childish voice. ‘But obviously I would, you know, if you were up for it.’
‘No fucking wonder Ruby thinks I’m a bastard! Shit! I can’t believe… I just…’
‘Ooh, I have to go. My transport is here.’
‘What transport? Where the hell are you, Shelby?’Mitchgrowled.
Shelby chuckled.‘As if I’m going to tell you and your little friends in blue. Bye Mitchy. Have a wonderful life.’The line went dead.
Ruby turned to face him. Her cheeks warm and her heart pounding. ‘You didn’t sleep together?’
He shrugged. ‘Well, technically,Islept. I was so chilled after you and I… that I slept the sleep of the dead. I didn’t even feel her get in with me. She delighted in sending me photographic proof. The police have that now. I certainly didn’t want it.’ He shivered. ‘But no, Ruby, I didn’t have sex with her. I wouldn’t. I only wanted you.’ His voice broke. ‘I know it’s probably too late now, and you maybe still don’t believe me, but it’s true.’ He sighed and laughed, but his expression didn’t match the sound. ‘In fact, I only came back here to find out where you’d gone. I was planning on following you. I had to make sure you knew that I did nothing to hurt you. But then I realised that I’d said all that stuff to you about your career and…’
‘And?’ Ruby whispered.
He shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference. I’d already ruined things. But I had all these things planned that I’d say to you.’
‘What things?’
He gazed into her eyes. ‘That I’d made a mistake. That your career didn’t matter. That I’d follow you to the ends of the earth because… because I love you. I think I have since you left me those cookies and that note about whore’s moans and dolphin hens.’ He laughed. ‘That I’d put up with being famous. And I’d get used to the cameras and the newspaper articles… if… if it meant I’d be with you.’
Ruby sniffed and laughed. ‘You were going to say all that?’
He smiled and her heart melted. ‘I was.’
She was desperate to reach out and touch him, to hold him, to tell him how sorry she was for making such a huge mistake in not talking to him. ‘And now?’ she asked, twisting the end of Chewie’s lead in her hands as the dog rested his chin on her lap.
He shrugged. ‘And… Now you’re here, and I still feel all those things. But… I don’t know if you will forgive me… Please forgive me?’ His eyes glistened and his lip trembled.
She flung her arms around him. ‘Oh Mitch, there’s really nothing to forgive. I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m the idiot and I love you so much.’ She clung to him for a moment before he pulled away.
‘Wait, hang on… Just so I get this clear, in my own head… Are we… are we giving us another try?’
The hope in his eyes almost broke her, and she chose to show him rather than tell him. She crushed her lips into his, her hand in his hair as he pulled her into his lap, returning the kiss with a desperate fervour like that of a man finding oxygen after being starved.
Eventually she pulled away. ‘I have something to tell you.’
He cupped her face in his hands. ‘What?’
‘I’ve given up acting. I told Valerie I quit. It wasn’t all to do with the hacking and her granddaughter being the cause. I decided, after being here in Glentorrin actually, that I don’t want to be that person any more. So, I’m… I’m just me now. No cameras, no newspaper articles. Just Ruby Locke, unemployed former actor.’
His eyes widened and once again he pulled her into his arms. ‘But you’re my unemployed former actor,’ he said, before he kissed her again.
Epilogue
One year later
Mitch had asked Ruby to move in with him on the afternoon after they had talked on the bench. They’d lived together before, so it felt like the obvious step. She had her belongings shipped over from New York, thanks to the help of Philippe and Jessica. Her parents visited not long after the move and the villagers accepted her as one of their own. She almost forgot that she used to be world-famous.
In the twelve months that passed since Ruby’s name had been cleared once and for all, so much had happened. Most of it amazing.
Kitty gave birth to a little girl, who she named Eliza Ruby. Of course, Mitch and Ruby visited soon after the birth and both immediately fell in love with the little bundle and her mop of downy blonde curls, whilst Kitty – rather gawkily, and much to her husband Gerry’s amusement – fell in love with Mitch.
Shelby was eventually caught in the Highlands and extradited to the USA, where she had been sentenced to five years in prison. Apparently, she had been caught doing something similar before – hence the issues that caused her mother to ask her to leave – so her sentence was harsher with it not being her first dip into crime.
