Page 18 of Destined For Forever

“I bet this is what they did back in Jane Austen times,” Lily said. There was a shuffling sound, like fabric whispering against skin. “Get undressed awkwardly in the dark.”

“I would try to make a witty remark here, but that would require me to know anything about Jane Austen,” he replied. “Blah, blah, Mr. Darcy.”

She laughed. The sound was raspy and deep, and it sent a blade of attraction through him. “Blah, blah, Mr. Darcy? That’s seriously the best you can do?”

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “The one time I was forced to watch Sense and Stupidity, I fell asleep.”

Lily’s laugh was even heartier this time. “First, it’s Sense and Sensibility, not Sense and Stupidity. Second, Mr. Darcy is from Pride and Prejudice.”

Sean scoffed. “Sense and Stupidity sounds way catchier, if you ask me.”

“No. It sounds like the people who made Dumb and Dumber did a Jane Austen adaptation.” The sound of a zip—probably from her suitcase—cut through the air. “Which is something nobody needs in their life.”

“Disagree. I would watch that.” He listened to see if she was done, but the rustling told him she was still changing. “How many layers do you have on, exactly?”

“Enough that I am going to feel like a Jane Austen character getting undressed in the morning,” she joked.

“Does it get cold in LA?”

He’d never been the kind of guy to be curious about other parts of the world. Maybe it was because he’d grown up feeling like travel was a privilege not accessible to him, so why wonder about somewhere you’d never get to visit? As he’d gotten older, the time he’d spent away from Patterson’s Bluff had done more harm than good.

“Nah, it’s lovely there. Very warm,” she replied. “You’d like it. And you can turn around now, I’m all done.”

About time. “Do you enjoy living there?”

She didn’t answer right away. That strange expression drifted across her features again, but it was gone in an instant, and Sean wondered if it was only a trick of the shadows.

“Yeah, but I miss my family,” she said eventually. “It must be nice to have Zoey living just down the street.”

“It is.”

Although it hadn’t always been. There’d been a time when Sean left Patterson’s Bluff briefly, the year after he graduated high school. Things had gotten tense at home—he was fighting with his father all the time and his mother’s drinking had gotten worse. Eventually it had boiled over into him packing his bags, while Zoey sat on his floor crying and begging him not to leave her behind.

What bastard leaves his little sister in a situation like that?

Although Sean had only lasted a year living away from Patterson’s Bluff, the shame of failing her like was still as bright as a freshly stoked fire. They’d talked it through many times, and Zoey had forgiven him. But he hadn’t quite forgiven himself, in truth. If he could turn back time and be a stronger person—a better person—for her, he absolutely would.

But that was the uncomfortable truth of it all: his future was in the same small town where he grew up, with the same people and the same job he’d always had.

Which meant there was no point fantasising about a woman with enough talent to fly her half-way across the world, even if she was…

Well, it was a little hard to say she looked sexy right now, given she had a pair of tracksuit pants tucked into her socks and a baggy oversized jumper with sleeves so long they hung down over her hands.

“You’re looking at me funny,” she said.

“Do you have on every item of clothing you brought with you?” She looked like an adorable brunette marshmallow.

“No,” she replied smartly, crawling into the bed and holding the corner of the bedcover up for him. “I also brought a cocktail dress for the wedding.”

The saucy grin nearly melted his heart. This was Lily at her best—teasing, cheeky, guard down. It was this version of Lily that had captured his heart all those years ago.

It’s fake. It will never be real.

So then why, as he slid into bed beside her and flicked off the torch, did it feel like all his Christmases had come at once?

6

The following morning Lily woke up to possibly the most magical scene ever. The power had come back on sometime earlier in the morning, and thankfully that meant the heater had kicked in and taken the brittle chill out of the air. Snow had gathered along the windowsill, and it fogged the glass around the edges. Ice crystals glittered as the buttery morning light hit them in just the right way.

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