Page 63 of Could It Be Magic?
‘Firstly,’ she said, gently removing her hand from Nick’s mouth, ‘you need to stop apologising for everything. Annabelle always says you spend your life saying sorry for things that are nothing to do with you. Stop taking responsibility for stuff that is literally not your problem.’
‘But Thea?—’
Thea gently covered his mouth again. ‘Shush, or it’s staying there until I’ve finished.’
Nick nodded, a trace of amusement in his eyes.
‘All right.’ Thea fixed him with her hardest stare, but she had the feeling it wasn’t having the desired effect, as his gaze softened, and he moved closer to her. ‘As I was saying…’
Seeing him relaxing a little sent Thea’s senses into overdrive, and she found that she, now, was the one who was struggling with what to say. The words screamed in her mind, but she couldn’t seem to articulate them.
Fuck it, she thought, after a beat or two. There was only one way to make clear what she needed to tell him. Thea closed the remaining gap between them and brought her hand up to Nick’s face again.
‘No…’ she said gently as she saw him draw breath to speak. ‘I’m still talking.’
‘I didn’t say anything…’
Thea’s hand stroked his face and came to rest on the back of Nick’s neck, feeling the warmth of his skin contrasting with the texture of his collar.
‘That’s better.’ She leaned upwards until her lips met with his. Increasing the pressure, she deepened the kiss, exploring his mouth with her tongue, and pressing into his embrace, as she felt him, tentatively at first and then more confidently, reciprocating the kiss and sliding his arms around her. They remained that way, locked together, until Thea breathed in again, and gently started to disentangle herself.
‘As I was saying,’ she murmured. ‘You’re not the only one who feels that way. It’s taken me a while to see it, but I’m in love with you, Nick. These past few weeks have opened my eyes to something I should have seen before. You are the kindest, loveliest, sexiest man I’ve ever met, and while I could live with fewer apologies, I’m prepared to overlook that because being with you is the best thing I’ve done for a long, long time. This thing with Ed is complicated, but we’ll work that out. It’s you that I want.’
Nick’s eyes widened, and Thea smiled at his adorable surprise. ‘Don’t even pretend that you didn’t know that was what I was going to say.’
‘No,’ Nick replied. ‘I’m not pretending.’ He shook his head. ‘Even now, I still can’t quite believe that you love me. God, Thea, you love me!’ He looked down at her in wonder. ‘And I love you. I love you so fucking much. And I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be swearing but I just can’t?—’
As they broke apart once more, Thea was sure that the smile on her face was mirroring the one she could see on Nick’s. ‘I know it’s a bit late, but Merry Christmas, Saint Nick,’ she said. ‘Here’s to the future.’
Nick started the Land Rover again, and they navigated the winding, snowy road back to Orion Close. It had been a long time coming, but despite the snow falling on the windscreen, Thea had never seen things more clearly.
EPILOGUE
‘No, I’m bloody well not going to fill in, just for the sake of the cameras!’ Thea’s broad smile belied the stridency of her words as she walked away from Nick and Annabelle, who were both behind the shop counter, looking at her with the same beseeching expression. ‘And the two of you looking at me that way isn’t going to make any difference.’
‘Really?’ Annabelle grinned at her. ‘I mean, do you really want your heavily pregnant nearly-sister-in-law to be on her feet more than necessary for the duration of the Christmas season?’
‘That’s not fair, Annabelle,’ Thea muttered. ‘And you told me yourself that the midwife said everything’s perfectly fine, and doing some light work would be good for you and the baby.’
‘But Tally and the team said you were a real hit with the viewers in last year’s Christmas special,’ Nick chimed in. ‘She seems to think that the viewing figures’ll be through the roof if we’re in shot together this year.’
‘What is this, The Real Housewives of Burnham-on-Sea?’ Thea laughed. ‘I’m not a reality star, and neither are you, Nick Saint. And the last time Tally tried to convince you otherwise, you turned her down flat.’
‘Well, yeah, but that was before I saw how much the camera loves you…’ Nick sidled out from behind the counter and slid an arm around Thea’s waist. ‘It makes you look so sexy, Thea Ashcombe, and you know how gorgeous I think you are already…’ He dipped his lips towards hers, an expression of barely disguised lust in his eyes, and if it hadn’t been for the sound of Annabelle’s grossed-out groaning behind them, Thea probably would have given in and kissed him right back.
‘The answer’s still no,’ Thea murmured, but she knew her resistance was futile: ever since she and Nick had finally got together, she found it hard to refuse him anything. These past twelve months had objectively been the happiest of her life, and although she’d maintained her independence and was still living in her little house on Orion Close, thanks to the couple of days a week she was now working at Saints’ Farm, she knew that eventually she and Nick would make a home together, when the time was right.
‘Tally’s coming up tonight,’ Annabelle interjected. ‘She wants to run a few things past us all before the cameras start rolling the day after tomorrow. Would you at least be happy to meet with her as a team?’
Thea sighed, but she knew she was going to agree. ‘Of course. Let’s see what she’s got in mind.’ She looked back up at Nick. ‘Just promise me there won’t be any grand gestures on camera. This is meant to be a show about the farm shop, not some trashy fly-on-the-wall docudrama!’
‘Don’t worry,’ Nick grinned. ‘I promise not to drop to one knee and pop the question on camera.’ He brushed his thumb gently against her lips. ‘When that time comes, it’ll be between you, me and the engagement ring, I promise.’
Thea’s knees, accustomed to going weak whenever he looked at her like that, felt their familiar lurch. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘So now we’ve established that, are you up for attending the meeting?’
Thea grinned. ‘For you, anything. But I’m not sure if I have it in me to be so polite to Tally.’
