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Then today, when she’d been standing in front of him in her blue coat, with the snow in Central Park framed behind her, the sight of her had made him catch his breath.
It was odd. Their meeting had been a fluke—entirely coincidental, with a whole set of circumstances they could never have predicted. Who knew he would have been in Mont Coeur at all? His parents dying had been a horrible event. The will reading in Switzerland? He would never have expected that. And for Anissa to be training and have an accident at the exact moment he’d come by...
Then there was the spark. The one that neither of them could deny. And on top of all of that was the fact she’d been sent to clean his chalet.
In another life they would never have met. But they’d met in this one. And it felt strangely right.
Part of this was probably how he was feeling right now. The flood of feelings from childhood and his insecurities had come back with a vengeance. He’d spent most of his adult life determined to shake them off, and for a while he’d thought he had.
Even having that face-to-face conversation with his mother and father would have helped. At least he thought it would have. And that constant sense of being cheated wouldn’t leave him.
‘Hey, Leo, I’ve got the tickets.’ His head jerked up. Anissa was at the desk, waving the tickets at him.
His hand went automatically to his wallet. ‘Oh, sorry, here, let me.’
She shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. My treat.’ She was smiling with the tickets held up against her cheek. There was a twinkle in her eye—one that had been missing in the park.
He crooked his elbow towards her. ‘Okay, Ms Lang, let’s have some fun.’
* * *
She’d never laughed so much. They’d spent hours in amongst the dinosaur skeletons, wondering at their size and immense power. For a few moments Leo had seemed a bit quiet. ‘Always wanted to visit a place like this,’ he’d murmured.
‘You must have gone to museums with your mum and dad,’ she’d said.
‘Not often,’ was the reply.
But the melancholy moment had left him as soon as it had arrived. If he hadn’t been to many museums in his childhood, it seemed he was using this one to make up for it.
Anissa took pictures of them comparing themselves to the huge footprint of the Titanosaurus. Then they wandered through the hall of mammals and the wonders of the ocean exhibit. She couldn’t help but gasp at the site of the giant blue whale suspended between two floors.
He nudged her as they looked down onto the floor below. ‘Do you know you can stay here? Spend the night?’
‘What? No way!’ She couldn’t hide her excitement at even the thought of it.
‘Yep. Guess what’s it called?’
Was it a trick question? ‘Don’t know.’
‘“Night at the Museum”.’
She let out a burst of laughter. ‘After the movie? Oh, I love it!’
He nodded. ‘One of the other guys at my work has two kids. When they did it, they got to go around the dinosaur exhibits in the middle of the night with flashlights. He said it was one of the best nights of his life.’
She clasped her hands to her chest. ‘Oh, I want to do it. I want to do it.’
He shook his head, smiling. ‘Think you have to be between six and thirteen.’ He leaned forward and whispered, his lips brushing against her ear, ‘I think we might have left it a bit too late.’
She scowled and stood back, looking him up and down. ‘Well, you’ve definitely left it too late. But me?’ She held up her hair in pretend bunches and gave him a cheeky smile. ‘I could maybe pass for thirteen if I tried really hard.’
He gave her a playful shove. ‘No way. If I don’t get to hunt dinosaurs at night, neither do you. We could always steal some kids if we have to.’
She nodded her head until a mother walked past with a kid screaming in a stroller. ‘Okay,’ she whispered, ‘just promise me it’s not that one.’
She slid her hand into his. ‘You know, I did do this kind of thing with my mum and dad—just not enough.’
‘Why not?’ He seemed curious.
She gave a little shrug. ‘I was so passionate about skiing. At times it was the only thing I wanted to do, and in a way I was lucky because my mum and dad supported me, but now...’ She stared back up at the giant whale. ‘For the first time I wonder how much I missed out on. I wonder if at some point they should have said no to me.’
He turned to stare at her. ‘How would you have felt if they had?’
His bright blue eyes were intense. It was almost as if he already knew the answer. She gave a laugh and shook her head. ‘Oh, I’m sure I would have been quite the little diva. I didn’t like it when I didn’t get my own way.’
He arched one eyebrow. ‘You? A diva? No way.’
She laughed and slid her arm into his.
Next, they spent time in the human and culture halls before heading to the planetarium.
‘I love this,’ breathed Anissa, as she lay back in one of the tilting chairs and looked at dark universe above scattered with stars. Music was playing around them as the show continued.
‘It is pretty amazing,’ agreed Leo as he lay in the chair next to her. She turned her head. He was staring straight up, his dark, slightly messy hair crinkling at the collar of his button-down shirt. Most men had their hair cropped quite short, but she liked the longer look. It suited Leo. And every time she looked at that hair she had to fight the urge to run her fingers through it.
There was hardly anyone around them and for a few moments it felt as if they were only ones appreciating the marvels above them.
She reached over and threaded her fingers through his. If he was surprised he didn’t show it. He didn’t pull away. ‘Thank you for bringing me here, Leo,’ she whispered.
He turned his head in the darkness and smiled at her, just as the planets appeared behind him. ‘I think you brought me,’ he joked as she let out a gasp.
It was odd. She’d seen lots of wonderful things today, and snapped a hundred photos. But this was image that would stay in her mind. Leo, lying back in the chair, smiling at her with the planets behind him.
He glanced behind him and nodded at the scene. Settling back in his chair, his thumb traced little circles in the palm of her hand as the show continued. ‘I wish I’d done this as a kid,’ he murmured. She could see him glancing at the few other people—many families—in the theatre.
‘You must have done some stuff like this as a kid?’
He shook his head. ‘No. Never. No parks. No museums. No arcades.
’ He gave a sad kind of smile. ‘Obviously, I did school trips—and we went to some fun places then.’
Her stomach rolled. It was almost like he was trying to make excuses for his parents. What kind of people had they been? It made her heart pang. ‘Not all families get time,’ she said, trying to be conciliatory.
He gave a sad sigh as he continued to trace little circles in her palm. ‘Even if they’d had the time, they still wouldn’t have brought me here.’ He turned to face her. ‘But it doesn’t matter now. Because I’m here with the right person.’
Tingles shot up her arm and straight to her heart.
It was crazy. She knew it was crazy. They’d done everything back to front. Her actions that first night had been so out of character for her she hadn’t even recognised herself. She’d thought she’d have been filled with a lifetime of regrets.
But...something, something had just clicked.
If someone had told her this time a few weeks ago she’d be in New York, staying in a billionaire’s penthouse, she would never have believed it.
She wanted to ask him what he meant about the fact his parents still wouldn’t have brought him here. And she still hadn’t really worked out why he’d only just met his brother and sister. His whole family dynamics seemed complicated and it was obvious he played his cards close to his chest. But now didn’t seem the time to ask. Not when he’d just told her he was glad he was with her.
She turned back to him and smiled again, hoping to distract him from any sad thoughts he might be having.
‘I wonder if there’s anything out there?’ she said.
‘Who knows?’ asked Leo. ‘And what do you think they’d make of us?’
Her head fell back, ‘Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? We have all this beauty and we’ve ruined some of it.’
He nodded in agreement, his finger still moving soothingly in her palm. ‘You’re right. But for now let’s just lie back, appreciate the stars and try to imagine a place where everything is perfect.’
There was something about his words. It was like a warm blanket being snuggled all around her. There were a hundred things she could stress about right now. Training. Her job. Her finances. And whether she would ever have a chance of competing professionally again. Sometimes it made her brain ache.
