Page 94 of The Duke Who Saved Christmas
His shoulders heaved, and he stretched his neck by rocking his head from side to side. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you about her. She wasn’t the person I thought she was.”
I glanced down towards my lap. “Is she why you hate Christmas?”
He laughed, tipping his head right back.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Please don’t give herthatmuch credit.” Thomas’ lips tugged into the slightest of smiles, and he reached around for a footstool and pulled it closer to him before he sat up on it and leant forwards. “I met Millie in university, and we were together for around five years. She didn’t live in Castleton, but she went to Middlesborough for work. It wasn’t so far that it was hard, and we were quite happy. After Dad got his diagnosis, I knew it was time to make our relationship serious, and not long after, I proposed to her.”
I knew how this ended.
“We set a date for this past summer, and everything seemed like it was going well. The planning was a little slow, granted, but Dad seemed to be responding well to his treatment, and he was just happy we were committed.” Thomas paused. “From Millie’s part, there was always an excuse why we couldn’t plan the wedding beyond setting a date. She was a trainee barrister at the time, so I didn’t think much of it since she was so busy. We had plenty of time, until Dad’s scan showed that his cancer had spread.”
I swallowed. “I’m sorry. You don’t—”
“He was terminal.” Thomas met my gaze and held it. “I told Millie I wanted to marry her before he died, and I didn’t care about the wedding, because I knew all Dad really wanted was to see me get married. I would have been happy with marrying her in the registrar’s office. I won’t pretend I didn’t push theissue, because I did. Two weeks later, she came over, told me she couldn’t marry me, and left. I couldn’t reach her at all after she blocked me on everything.”
I didn’t say anything.
How could I?
What was I supposed to say?
Clearly, she’d never wanted to marry him.
“She hurt me. A lot. It was Christmas Eve, right on top of Dad’s final diagnosis, and everything seemed to happen at the same time.” His jaw twitched, and I could swear there was a slight curve to his lips despite the sadness of the conversation. “I didn’t blame her for breaking up with me at the time, and I didn’t have much of a chance to think about anything else. I was too busy. But after…” He shrugged. “In hindsight, I think she’d met someone else, and she was too weak to tell me the truth. The day she broke up with me was the last time we ever spoke, but I know she moved to Belfast and got engaged to someone else shortly after.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN – SYLVIE
God.
His ex was a terrible person.
But then again, I wasn’t exactly much nicer. The first thing I’d said to him when we met each other outside the café was about how I wasn’t surprised he was single.
Ouch.
“I’m sorry,” I said after a moment.
“Why? You didn’t do that to me. The worst you’ve done is hold me accountable for my childhood actions and make a badly timed joke about me not being married.”
Ouch. He remembered it. “Oh, okay. So, we’re even.”
“Not really.”
“Thomas!” I kicked my leg out towards him, although we weren’t close enough for me to make any contact with him.
He laughed, leaning forwards with his eyes twinkling with gentle amusement. “Given how many times I’ve saved your arse in the past week and a half, we’ll never be even.”
“Anyone would think you have a hero complex.”
“No, only a knight in shining armour one.” The playfulness in his gaze made my stomach flip.
“Aren’t they the same thing?”
“No. One is just a hero. The other gets a suit of armour, and that’s infinitely cooler.”
I nodded slowly. “I can’t say I wouldn’t be amused by you wearing a suit of armour. Watching you get out of it would be even funnier.”
