‘There’s something I need to speak to you about, Joe.’
35
SKYE
He gazed at her, looking worried, and she felt her insides melt as his eyes locked with hers.
Studying his handsome face gazing down at her, his wavy black hair falling forward slightly over his face and his deep, navy eyes gazing intently at her, all she wanted to do was kiss him again.
Not that she should have kissed him earlier. It was unfair of her to do what she had done when she had intended on speaking to him about her concerns, but stupidly she couldn’t seem to help herself. Now she was probably going to ruin what could have been a perfectly lovely end to their eventful evening. But he needed to know how she felt and the sooner the better before she did anything silly like kiss him again.
‘Skye? Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?’
She closed her eyes, trying to think clearly, which wasn’t easy when she was so attracted to him. Everything about him was perfect, apart from him doing a dangerous job.
‘I’m sorry I kissed you earlier, Joe.’
He frowned. ‘You are? Why?’
‘Because it wasn’t fair of me.’
His face clouded over and he stared at her for a few seconds without speaking. ‘Why?’
She looked away, unable to bear the confusion on his sweet face.
‘Skye,’ he said gently. ‘What’s the matter? I hope you know you can tell me anything.’
Why was this so difficult? ‘We can’t carry on as we have been, Joe.’
He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’
She explained about seeing him at the rescue earlier. ‘It gave me such a shock to see how dangerous your job is.’
He smiled. ‘It’s not always like that. And that’s the first sea rescue I’ve been involved in.’
‘But it is a dangerous job, isn’t it?’
‘I suppose it can be, but we’re well trained and we have the right equipment.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘What’s this really about, Skye?’
She groaned. ‘I’ve lost too many people in my life to bear the thought of getting close to you and risk losing you too.’
She waited for him to react but he just stared at her looking bemused.
‘Joe?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not sure what I can do about that. It’s what I do. What I love doing.’
‘Yes, and I would never presume to expect you to change that, but I’m not sure I can stand being with someone and not knowing whether they’ll come home in one piece at the end of a shift.’
Hearing herself saying it out loud gave her worries gravitas, but he didn’t agree with her. She waited for him to speak and hoped he could understand.
‘I see where you’re coming from, but surely everyone takes risks constantly in their lives. You do with all your travelling. All your plane trips. The vehicles you must have ridden in when you were away.’ He shrugged one shoulder. ‘The train trips back in Scotland. Car trips. Do you worry about those each time you embark on one?’
She shook her head slowly. ‘I suppose not.’ She began to feel a little silly. What he said made good sense.
‘Skye, I don’t know about your feelings for me and I know we’ve only known each other a short while, but I find myself liking you more each day. Of course I’ll understand if you decide you don’t want to take what we had together any further. If you do though, I’m happy to try and find a solution.’
She hadn’t expected this and wondered what he would say next. ‘Like what?’
