Page 96 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

‘Shit!’

‘You won’t do it?’

‘Grist, Lex, you’ve cornered me. Of course, I’ll do it. I’ll miss the single malt, but if it’s a choice between you and the whisky, it’s you every time.’

‘I wasn’t actually making you choose. I wasn’t threatening to leave you.’

‘Oh, right?’ He focused on her again. ‘So it’s only about preserving my body?’ Owen smiled.

‘Is that a yes?’

‘Of course, it is. Meet the new, tee-total Owen Kingsley.’

‘Thank you.’ Lexie sat up. ‘Thank you, thank you.’ She knelt and scattered kisses over his face and into his beard.

‘Careful, you should still be resting.’

‘I just want to give you a kiss.’

‘Oh, all right. I won’t stop you,’ Owen grinned, and she leaned into him. Their lips met, and all the fright and pain of the day disappeared.

* * *

His heart achedas he looked at Lexie, so kind, tender … loving. What on earth had he done to deserve such a fabulous woman?

Her fingers curled around his chin. ‘Thank you for promising to give up booze. If you’d kept on drinking the way you were, it would have hooked you eventually, and there would have been no turning back.’

‘I wasn’t planning to live long enough for it to hook me.’

‘What!’ Lexie dropped her hand from his face. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘The Friday we first met, shortly after I left you in Trafalgar Square, I got drunk, trying to get up the courage to throw myself in the river.’

‘No!’

‘I’d lost everything. Margaret was keeping Emi from me. I’d run out of money. Bills were stacking up. No work, no prospects, no Emi. I couldn’t face any more pain. But then George found me in the pub and offered me a job.’

Lexie pulled Owen into her arms. ‘Owen, my lovely Owen. Thank heaven George found you.’ She leaned back from him, taking his face in her hands. ‘Think if George hadn’t saved you, the only meeting we might have had would have been in Trafalgar Square.’ A tear ran slowly down her face. ‘We’d never have been.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Owen pulled her close, hiding his own tears in her hair.

‘You’ll never do it, will you?’ she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder. ‘You’ll never think again of killing yourself, will you?’

‘No.’ He shook his head, confident that this was the truth. ‘I have too much to live for now. Lex, I’m sorry I’ve been an idiot. Not handled this thing between us well. I think you might understand now why. I?’ The noise of an approaching helicopter stopped him from telling her is one last secret.

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