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‘Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?’
‘Thank you.’
She lowered her head, knowing she was blushing, but hardly even caring. With any other man, she might have been wary that it was a line. A thing to say. But she was quickly realising that, with Jake, he was too serious and too direct to feed a person lines.
If he told her she looked beautiful, it was because he thought she did. And because he said it, she didn’t let herself worry that she looked like some wild jungle creature. She simply believed him.
It should have rung an orchestra of alarm bells in her head. The summer programme was nearly over and he would be leaving soon. Letting herself get attached could only end in heartache. And yet, she was letting herself do precisely that.
Just as if a part of her hoped she might be able to change the inevitable by sheer power of thought.
If she had any sense, she would turn around and tell Jake Cooper that she was happy to be his colleague, his friend, but that this date could never lead anywhere.
Better still, she would make her excuses, turn around and leave. Back to her family, and her career, and all the things she could depend on.
‘Ready?’ he asked, holding out his arm.
And then, because she’d always been drawn to the most dangerous flames, Flávia turned her head to cast him her brightest smile, and she took his arm.
* * *
‘I loved that,’ Flávia exclaimed a couple of hours later as they exited their floor of the theatro and headed down one side of the sweeping, double staircase. ‘I didn’t think I would, but I did. So thank you.’
‘Such faith.’ Jake shook his head. ‘This way.’
‘Where are we going now?’
‘Another surprise,’ he told her. ‘I’m glad you liked the theatre. Maria told me you used to love this place when you all came here as a family. I guess I hoped it would bring back those happy memories.’
‘I don’t know about that, but I know it has created new happy memories, which stand strong all on their own.’
‘Are they that sad?’ he asked abruptly, the odd expression on her face gnawing into him. ‘Is that how you knew I needed to create positive memories with Brady so that he had some which didn’t all involve Helen?’
‘It’s slightly different.’ She shot him a smile, but it was too bright, too brittle, for Jake’s liking. ‘His mum died.’
‘As did yours.’ He frowned.
Flávia stopped. She twisted her head around to look at him.
‘What made you think that?’
‘You told me you understood exactly how he felt. You said that.’
‘I said I understood how he felt with regards to his passion for nature, and science. I never said my mum died.’
‘But she did, didn’t she?’
The silence was so leaden, so oppressive, that Jake was sure he’d stopped even breathing.
‘My mum didn’t die,’ Flávia gritted out when he’d almost given up hope of her speaking. ‘She walked out. Leaving my father to pick up the pieces for two d
evastated little girls.’
A complication of emotions twisted their way across her lovely face at that moment, and Jake wished he could take back every word. To have never reminded her of such pain. For the conversation never to have started.
But it had, and he needed to find a way through it.
‘Do you want to talk?’
