“I did not. You’re misremembering,” Henry says, wiping his hands against one another like the mere idea of violence makes him feel dirty. “I could have done it if necessary, but I prefer not to.”
Julian snorts and looks at me. “Come on, Diana. Back me up. Didn’t it make you swoon a little bit when I smacked your dad in the face?”
I screw up my face. “Erm. I mean, he was being fairly horrendous, so maybe a bit?”
Julian, pleased, turns to Henry. “See?See?” he says, nodding furiously and ignoring Henry’s responding eye roll before his focus returns to me. “What about your sister? Think she was impressed?”
“I doubt it,” I say, but his eagerness for Sylvie’s approval makes me smile.
“Julian’s my little bit of rough,” Henry says. “He thinks violence is the answer to everything.”
“I don’t,” Julian protests. “But Rafe was just going to stand there.”
“No, he wasn’t.” Henry gestures calmly with one hand, like he’s giving a lecture. “Rafe was going to kill him. So your little display of manliness did serve one purpose. We don’t have to watch our friend go down for murder.”
Julian makes a disgruntled sound and shuffles back in his chair, letting his head fall back so it rests against the wall. “I knew it was the right thing to do.” He breathes heavily for a while, then glances sideways at me. “Your sister is hot. She single?”
“Fucking hell, Jules,” Henry mutters. “Your hand can’t be that bad if you’re already chasing skirt.”
“She’s engaged,” I reply. “To a dickhead called Dave.”
Henry huffs, quietly repeating, “Dickhead Dave,” and grinning as if he thinks it’s the most amusing thing he’s heard all day.
Julian chuckles. “She’s available, then.”
It doesn’t sound like a question, so I don’t answer. Henry slaps Julian’s knee in reprimand, and the two of them start arguing about whether it’s appropriate to hit on a woman who’s engaged to another man.
Henry says no. Julian says yes, but only if the other guy is a dickhead she shouldn’t be marrying anyway.
My phone rings, andHandsome Strangerflashes up. I never changed Rafe’s contact details.
Julian and Henry pause their discussion, watching as I answer. “Hello?”
“Diana,” Rafe says, voice serious. “Can you come outside, please?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s just started raining.”
When I walk outside, the rain is already falling hard, but the air is still warm. The scent of petrichor hovers in the air, and people rush to take shelter from the downfall. I spot Rafe immediately, standing on the embankment, right by the wall that separatespedestrians from the drop to the Thames below. As if he knows I’m here, he turns and looks up, and I take the steps down to join him.
I don’t see Lizzie, but by the way he’s staring up at me like I’m the most amazing thing he’s ever seen, as if he’s been waiting right here his whole life for me to appear, I assume whatever happened between them didn’t end too badly. But I can’t force myself to worry about it, because my heart is racing, my body thrumming with anticipation, and with each step closer, a million scenes from books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen flit through my mind. I’ve wanted someone to look at me like this my whole life. With my clothes on. In the rain.
It’s the most perfect moment. I wish I could record it and loop it on repeat forever. Even if he’s going to tell me we can never, ever see one another again, I’ll have the memory of this moment forever.
My chest tightens, and my throat flexes, swallowing down the lump that seems to want to lodge there permanently. I can’t cry. I don’t even know what he’s going to say. I can’t burst into tears; at least not yet.
When I reach his level, my belted trench coat is soaking, and my hair is wet. The blue shirt he’s wearing is two-tone, dark and wet across his shoulders.
He holds out his hand. “Dance with me.”
I can’t help grinning as I give him mine. “That’s so cheesy.”
“Wow,” he says, pulling me into him, swallowing me in his warmth, his scent.Home. “Tough crowd. I thought you liked the rain. I thought you wanted to dance in it.”
“I do. In books. In real life, it’s—”
“How about you stop resisting it and let me dance with you?”
