‘The other thing I want to say,’ Amy went on, ‘is that this– thisthingwe have, which as you’re now aware terrifies me beyond belief … It’s not just about bickering and kissing. I’m in love with you. Properly, completely and irrevocably. I’ve never loved anyone else, and I don’t think I ever will. And I wanted you to know, even if you can’t love me back after everything that’s happened. Just because it’s the truth.’
‘I see,’ Sam said, looking down. Frowning. ‘That’s … interesting.’
To Amy’s astonishment, he began peeling his sweater up over his torso. Was he stripping off? Yes, she’d said she loved him– but she wasn’t about to get jiggy with him in the wood.
He cast his navy cotton crew neck aside and pointed at his torso. He was wearing a RomFest T-shirt, but it wasn’t the one she would have expected him to pick. It said: ‘Team #Soulmates’. Underneath, he’d written their names in Sharpie, enclosing them inside a heart.
‘Embarrassing, right?’ he said, grinning. ‘Terrible. But that thing you said about wearing an “I Heart Sam” top under your clothes made me think of it. I need you to know that I have wanted you so much, for so long. I never stopped missing you, thinking about you or loving you. It’s always been you, Amy.’
He pressed his lips to her cheek so gently that tears stung her eyes. He kissed her face again, and then again, inching his lips closer and closer to hers each time he moved.
She pushed her hands into his honey-coloured hair, feeling its smooth, cool softness against her skin. When their mouths met it was urgent, clumsy and warm. There was a hungry intensity between them– an impulsive connection that was passionate rather than polite. It was visceral, electrifying, earthy.
Being with Sam like this reminded Amy how alive she was. Every cell in her body fizzed with elation at his nearness; at the feel of his skin and the taste of his lips; at the scent of him, always the same– cedar and citrus, deep and fresh. Her heart felt like it might burst in her chest.
‘So. Can I walk you home?’ he asked, grinning. ‘Kiss you some more outside the kitchen window?’
‘I have Gran’s car, remember?’ she said, patting her pocket to jingle the keys.
‘Ah,’ Sam said, frowning.
‘And anyway,’ Amy told him, settling her head against his shoulder and breathing him in freely, fully, with no fear. ‘I’m already home.’
Epilogue
‘I can’t believe youknew,’ Amy said. ‘Every time? Really?’
‘Every. Single. Time. Your father was the same– blithely assuming he could climb in and out of windows without me ever noticing. The arrogance of youth.’
‘Why didn’t you ever stop me? Us?’ Amy asked, aghast.
‘It was something that you needed– you in particular, I think,’ Grace said. ‘And you were always a sensible girl. Usually back before dark, apart from on that one night Sam brought you home. The night we’re talking about.’
‘Ow!’ Amy cried suddenly, feeling a hairpin scrape against her scalp. ‘Nish, thathurt.’
‘Sorry,’ Nisha grimaced. ‘Almost done.’
‘We need to hurry this up,’ Meg said, ‘or we’ll be late.’
As usual, she was ready before everyone else: beautiful and elegant in a simple dress made of fine, forest-green satin. It brought out the colour of her hazel eyes perfectly, and it was well chosen for an autumn wedding.
Outside the window, red and gold leaves were swirling in the mid-October breeze. The sky was clear: a pretty pale blue that promised not to rain on anyone’s parade.
‘There,’ Nisha said with satisfaction. ‘You look beautiful, Amy. And you look stunning, Grace.’
Nisha had piled Amy’s hair– longer and wavier than she’d let it grow in years– into an updo not unlike the one she’d worn at RomFest. Grace, meanwhile, had too little hair for Nisha to interfere with– but she’d consented to having her makeup done and ended up looking like a movie star: all twinkling blue eyes, fire engine-red lips and luminous skin. Shedidlook stunning.
‘We’d better get going,’ Meg said, looking at her watch again. ‘The cars are outside. Pearl! Off the iPad now, please, it’s time.’
The five of them made their way down Grace’s impossibly narrow, impossibly steep staircase to find their special occasion shoes. It would have been borderline suicidal to put them on any sooner.
Meg, Nisha and Pearl got into their taxi and disappeared in the direction of the village church. It wasn’t far– just the other side of the bridge– but too far to hobble to in heels.
As Grace and Amy climbed into their car and settled next to one another on the back seat, Amy picked up the thread of their earlier conversation. ‘What on earth made you decide to tell me you’d sussed me outtoday, of all days?’
‘I couldn’t have you believing you’d got away with it forever,’ Grace laughed. ‘And I thought it was relevant, somehow.’
‘As in … fate can bring people together in the most unexpected places?’ Amy asked, nonplussed.
