Page 57 of Sorry Season

Clutching at his T shirt, she hauled him close, her face mere millimetres from hers. “I love you. I’ve always loved you and that’s why I have to do this. I need you to understand. I need you to let me go.”

He didn’t have time to respond. She crushed her lips to his in a shattering, heart-rending kiss that reached down to his soul, leaving him yearning and devastated and vowing he’d never let her go no matter what.

All too soon she wrenched her mouth away and hugged him close, burying her face in the crook of his neck, nuzzling him like she’d done many times before.

“Take your trip, take as long as you need, but know this, Cam. I can’t let you go. I’m going to fight for us, for as long as it takes.”

He sensed her smile against his skin and wanted to leap up and swing her around in victory. Instead, he held her upper arms and set her back from him.

“Do what you have to do. But when you get back, I’ll be waiting for you.”

Cupping his cheek, she murmured, “You need to follow your dream.”

“I am.”

He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, gazes locked, hers stubborn, his optimistic, and as the sun set over RainbowCreek in a blaze of gold and mauve, he hoped that when she took this trip she wasn’t taking his dreams for the future with her.

Chapter Twenty

Camryn strolled over the ancient footbridges in Venice, she sighed at dusk in Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower, she marvelled at the British architecture along Oxford and Regent Streets, but it wasn’t until she reached Rome that the futility of what she was doing struck with a vengeance.

She’d deliberately distanced herself from Blane for three months, hoping her actions would speak louder than words.

He hadn’t believed her when she’d said they were over. He wouldn’t accept her returning the favor he once did her. So she’d done the only thing possible and stayed away, despite every cell of her body straining to board a flight back to Melbourne after his first call. And his second. And the countless texts and emails he’d sent her.

It had shattered her completely to ignore his attempts at contact, but she’d had to do it in the hope he’d move on. And now? Looking around, watching a handsome Italian man in a designer suit strolling hand in hand with his equally gorgeous toddler across the piazza, she knew this wasn’t enough.

Beautiful cities steeped in culture had acted as a suitable distraction for a while, but no amount of statues, paintings, andconcerts could eradicate the gaping hole in her life without Blane by her side.

She’d tried, she’d really tried to do the right thing and set him free. But the thought of him waiting for her, the memory of the many times he’d told her she was enough for him, had reverberated around her head endlessly until she kept coming back to the same conclusion.

She had to return home.

To her husband.

Decision made and feeling more energized than she had in months, she sipped on a deliciously frothy cappuccino, eager to return to her hotel.

She was going home to be with the man she loved.

Unable to keep the smile off her face, she drank quickly and glanced at her watch, trying to figure out the time difference between Rome and Melbourne, wondering if it was too late to call him.

However, as the finished her cappuccino, her stomach churned unexpectedly and she stared into her cup, wondering if the milk was off.

“Signorina? Is everything allright?”

Forcing a smile for the elderly waiter when in reality she wanted to make a bolt for the bathroom, she said, “I’d love a glass of water, please.”

“Bene.” He beamed at her, his proud smile suggesting he’d find a well and dredge up the bucket himself. “Another cappuccino to go with it?”

“No thanks.”

As another wave of nausea hit, she slid the cup across the table toward him. “I’ve had enough, thanks.”

As he bustled away, she rubbed her stomach, hoping she hadn’t picked up a bug. For a girl who lived and breathed coffee, it had never made her feel like this before.

She sat bolt upright, clutching at the table to steady herself as a faint buzzing filled her head, making her feel faint.

Something her mother had once said…about not being able to work inMa and Pa’swhen she’d been pregnant because of the smell of coffee…

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