He was singing to a lady who was wearing a red dress.
A love song. A slow, romantic love song.
Was Angus actually listening to these lyrics? Had he not realised how romantic it was? Was he not feeling as ifhewas having these words sung especially to him, as she was?
And they were, almost, sitting on a beach in the South of France, bathed in the most glorious sunset Tilly had seen in a very long time. She wouldn’t be surprised, Tilly thought, if a flock of Disney bluebirds suddenly appeared to flutter around their table.
But maybe it was only the reference to the red dress that had resonated with Angus because he was smiling as he shut off the music on his phone. And then the waiter came to collect their plates and the moment was gone.
Until Angus sighed.
‘I don’t think I want to go back to Scotland,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to go back into my office.’
Tilly nodded. ‘I understand,’ she said. ‘It will be hard, won’t it, to work with someone that you…’
She couldn’t bring herself to say it but the words were there in her head.
…that you loved enough to want to spend the rest of your life with.
Angus had furrows in his brow that made Tilly think they’d come full circle. Here they were on their last night together and he was scowling just like he had been when she’d met him at Marseilles airport.
‘Someone that I was going to propose to?’ Angus offered. ‘Someone that rejected me before I even asked?’
Tilly nodded miserably, her heart sinking like a stone.
But Angus was shaking his head. ‘It was really only my pride that was hurt,’ he said. ‘And my opinion of my ability to make good choices.’
Tilly’s eyes widened. ‘Not your heart? Not even a little?’
Angus was still frowning. ‘A little, I suppose,’ he conceded. ‘I was sad that I was losing what I’d hoped for in the future. A life partner. A family. But I wasn’t inlovewith Moira. I… was fond of her. I thought we were very compatible and that we’d make a successful couple and, hopefully, parents, but she wanted… well, she found the kind of love you’d approve of. The “in love” madness. The romance. The bells and whistles of the kind of love that I’m not capable of giving anyone.’
He shook off the words. ‘It might just be a bit awkward for a while, that’s all,’ he finished. ‘Working together. And…’ His tone shifted, as if he was making a private confession. ‘I feel different here. I feel like I’m more alive.’
‘Maybe you’re finding out who you truly are.’ Tilly held his gaze. ‘You don’t have to go home,’ she added softly. ‘You could rent Ellie’s cottage for as long as you like.’
‘I could, couldn’t I?’
For a long, long moment, Angus held that eye contact. Tilly thought she could see the instant he’d made his decision, before he spoke.
‘Can you send me Ellie’s contact details?’
She airdropped the contact to his phone and, to her surprise, Angus sent Ellie a text straight away. A moment later, his phone rang and he stood up and moved away from the table towards the beach to speak to her.
Tilly lifted her champagne glass to her lips as she watched him.
He was only just finding out who he really was, wasn’t he?
It was possible he might find out that hewascapable of falling in love. That maybe, it was actually happening, without him realising it – because he’d allowed himself tobea different person than he had been in Scotland.
There was something fluttering around Tilly right now that felt like an emotional version of those over-the-top bluebirds of happiness. Something that was also a lot more powerful.
Hope.
18
The small dining table was nothing like the desk Angus was used to working on but he’d figured out how to position his laptop and his phone and the various files he needed in order to work efficiently.
His working day had almost vanished with astonishing speed in the wake of an early, urgent request for his expertise. A drug company in Switzerland had completed several years of the preclinical phase for a very promising medication for mood disorders, for people resistant to standard antidepressants, and had finally moved into the first phase of a clinical trial in humans.
