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‘Yeah, I always used to feel a little bit of home whenever we ate there.’ She smiled warmly. ‘And you remember those orange and blue cocktails? Dream Fusions, were they called? Either way, they were lethal.’
‘You missed St Victoria.’ He shook his head, as if ignoring her attempt to distract him. ‘You used to tell me how much you’d always wanted to get away, and I took it at face value. I don’t know why I never considered you might still miss it.’
She shrugged, looking around at the old but loved décor, and the happy patrons who were more like family than customers.
‘I think it maybe took being away for me to realise how much I really loved this place.’
‘And your mama?’
‘I think she knew how I would end up feeling. I like to think that’s why she encouraged me to go. They say if you love something then you should let it go free. If it comes back to you...’
She tailed off, unable to finish.
She’d returned to St Victoria, her mama, almost too late. But, in the process she’d felt as though she’d lost Liam.
It had taken her years to accept that, like the old saying, he’d never come back to her so he’d never really been hers to begin with. But now he was here and in an odd way it was to reverse all the steps she’d made these past few years. She loved this place, and coming home had been the best decision. Yet if Liam asked her to return to North Carolina with him...would she?
She shook her head, irked by her own thoughts. This wasn’t a real date. They were only enjoying each other’s company for the time that he was on the island but he was never going to ask her to return with him. He was only here for one case, and after that he would be returning to Duke’s alone.
So why spoil a pleasant evening with thoughts of what could never be? Shaking everything from her mind, she tilted her head to one side.
‘What is it you want to know?’ he asked, almost amused.
‘Who says I want to know anything?’
‘You always do that with your head.’ He demonstrated. ‘And you twirl your thumbs around each other, faster and faster the more agitated you are.’
She didn’t need to glance down to check, although surreptitiously she tried to stop circling them.
‘So, go on, what did you want to ask?’
She pulled a rueful face.
‘I just wondered why it took so long to ask me on this date,’ she asked eventually. ‘Especially after what happened the other night.’
He’d spent the evening—the last few days—trying not to think about what had happened in the ocean the other day. And afterwards, of course. Not that he’d succeeded. The memory of their bodies entwined, him buried so deep inside her that he’d had no idea where she’d ended and he’d begun, had been too much to push aside.
‘Why?’ He schooled himself to stay calm. ‘Did you think I’d forgotten?’
‘No, but I began to wonder if you were drawing it out deliberately. Or think maybe it was some kind of ploy.’
‘Is that right?’ He let out a low, incredulous laugh, trying not to let his gaze linger too long on her body as she shifted in her seat. ‘It’s hardly flattering, how little you think of me, Talia. But, no, for the record, it wasn’t a ploy.’
‘Then why?’
‘Sometimes I forget how tenacious you were. Are.’
‘That’s funny, because I never forget how quick you can be to divert conversations, particularly if they veer near the personal.’
Dragging his eyes up, he forced himself to accept the criticism, as much as he might have wanted to deny it.
‘Fine,’ he conceded after a moment. ‘You really want to know why I waited until tonight?’
‘I do.’
‘I wanted it to be...right. Not rushed. Not just another night of sex—although I have to confess I’m more than open to that possibility too. But I knew you had a day off tomorrow, as do I, and I thought it would be nice to take the evening to have a meal, and talk, without either one of us having to rush off for work the next day.’
‘Ah.’ She looked vaguely sheepish before another expression clouded her eyes. A decidedly naughtier expression that he remembered from three years ago. ‘Just to have a meal and talk?’
