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‘What is it, anyway?’
‘She’ll know what it means.’
‘Right.’ Jake pressed his lips together.
To his surprise, Brady relented slightly.
‘It’s a strawberry poison dart frog, and it’s a super-parent. Just like Flávia.’
‘It’s perfect for her.’ Jake grinned conspiratorially. ‘So I guess we’d better book a couple of plane tickets and go and give it to her.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PASSPORT. TICKETS. MONEY. Check.
Flávia lowered her small cabin bag onto the ground and wheeled it out into the corridor. She was locking the door to her apartment when she heard the ping of the lift doors opening out of sight. But there was no way she could have anticipated seeing Jake walk around the corner.
Everything stopped. Her legs. Her heart. Her brain.
She had no idea how long she stood there, immobile, just watching him stride up the corridor towards her.
‘Going somewhere?’
His dry, sure voice floated in the air, and then everything kick-started inside her again, with a jolt.
‘What are you doing back here?’ She was running hot, then cold, then hot again, and she barely recognised her own voice.
‘I’m back here for you,’ he responded simply, and the certain, unequivocal nature of it seemed to steal her breath away.
‘Why?’ she demanded hoarsely as emotions spiralled through her, too fast and too many to grasp.
But she recognised one of them. Hope. Why else would Jake be here, if not for her? Yet, at the same time, she could remember with painful clarity all the things they’d said to each other before he’d left Bra
zil last time.
And she knew the one thing he didn’t. That she was carrying his baby.
‘I’m guessing for the same reason you were heading to London.’
It was so simple, so direct, it made her heart stop for a second time in as many moments.
‘How do you know?’
He half shrugged.
‘I went to your sister’s house as soon as I landed, thinking you’d either be in the rainforest or there. She told me.’
Her heart raced. Or stopped. She wasn’t sure which.
‘What else did she tell you?’
‘That she was glad I’d come. That I should leave Brady with her whilst I found you, and that whatever else happened I should know that much.’
‘I see,’ Flávia managed, for want of anything better to say.
And then he moved closer, the air around them drawing that much thicker, that much tighter.
‘I don’t think you do see, Flávia,’ he rasped. ‘Not completely. And that’s my fault for not saying it before. For not having the guts to say it before.’
