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‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Meena said cautiously. ‘Though it doesn’t change my plans.’
‘I know. I don’t expect it to. But there’s something else I need to tell you. I love you, Meena. I never stopped loving you. And I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to realise how I feel, because my heart has been aching for you since the day that I left St Antoine. I should have grabbed you up the moment that I came back and done everything in my power to try and get you to fall in love with me again. I didn’t because I was an idiot, and because I was so sure that I was wrong for you. But now...’
‘Now?’
‘Now I think I got that wrong. That all I ever wanted was a chance to love you.’
‘And, if I gave you that chance, how would this work?’
‘It works however you want it to work, Meena. It works in Sydney, or it works here, or on your campus in Queensland. I don’t care where we are. I just want a chance.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
A CHANCE. That was all that he wanted. And now it all came down to this—what did she want for her future? Meena had spent so long thinking about her past, agonising over the decisions she didn’t even remembe
r making, that she had put off thinking about her future. She’d made one big decision already—that she was ready to get back to her academic career. She’d been so overwhelmed by the knowledge of her past that she’d never even let herself think about her romantic future, but here it was looking her in the face, asking her to take a leap.
Could she trust him? Yes. The answer came to her without deliberation. Even without the change to his plans for Le Bijou she trusted him. She loved him. And if he truly meant what he’d said about changing his mind, then there was nothing standing in their way.
He said that he’d never stopped loving her, and from the heartfelt expression he was wearing, she had no choice but to believe him. He’d been torturing himself over the tragic death of his girlfriend, unable to see that he wasn’t responsible, no matter how terrible he felt about it.
She knew that she loved him, too. She had known it the moment she had learned about their history, and the uncanny emotions that she’d felt at seeing him again had suddenly made sense. Of course she still loved him. Her body had never forgotten him, and she was sure that somewhere in the recesses of her brain those precious memories of their summer together were locked away safe.
‘I love you, Guy.’
He’d tried to scare her off with his failed romantic history, but none of that mattered. They were both bringing baggage into this relationship, but it didn’t matter. Because at last they were being honest with each other, and she was convinced that there was nothing that they couldn’t face if they did it together.
‘We’re going to make this work,’ she added as she saw his smile grow. ‘If we both want this, we’ll find a way for the geography to work. And I do want this. I’ve wanted it since the minute I opened my eyes on Le Bijou and saw you, if I’m honest. Long before I knew what you meant to me.’
‘And I’ve wanted it since the day I left you there, looking just the same as I found you. Lying beneath the coconut and filao trees, eyes closed, just soaking in our favourite place.’
‘I don’t want you to resent me for making you change your mind about Le Bijou,’ she said in a softer voice, concern clouding her expression.
‘Meena, I promise you, I will never resent you. This whole project was about forgetting you. Because I was an idiot. I don’t want to forget a second that we spend together. I want us both to treasure those memories. And the ones that you’ve lost, I’ll treasure them enough for the both of us.’
She smiled at that.
‘And we’ll look after Le Bijou together,’ Guy went on. ‘And make sure it is always protected. And maybe, one day, we’ll bring our family here to enjoy it with us.’
‘Our family?’
He nodded and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. ‘It’s what I want, Meena. It’s what I wanted that summer, and what I’ve been grieving for ever since. If it’s what you want too, then we can make it real.’
‘And the distance?’ she asked. ‘Even when we’re both in Australia?’
‘It’s nothing,’ Guy said confidently. ‘You’re the one who said it. I have a plane. And a helicopter. If you want our home to be in Queensland, I will fly back to you every night.’
‘Hardly the environmentally friendly solution...’ she replied, eyebrows raised.
‘Then I will work remotely. Or I’ll move the whole bloody office to Queensland if I have to. I don’t care, Meena. I’ll make it work, if you just tell me that you want me to.’
She said nothing. For seconds. For days. For long enough that he was convinced that she had changed her mind. Until her face broke out into the beaming smile he’d not seen for seven years, and he knew.
‘I want you too.’
She squealed as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up, the boat rocking beneath them until he had to reach out a hand to steady them. As she slipped down his body, held tight against his chest, he knew that, whatever happened, he wouldn’t let her go again.
‘I love you, Meena,’ he said, half under his breath as he leaned in to kiss her. When her arms wrapped around his neck he finally felt it fall away—the heartache and the grief that he had carried for the last seven years. With her in his arms, he was whole again.
