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‘Did I forget to tell you how beautiful—?’
She stopped his words with another kiss.
‘Yes, you forgot. You mentioned that my hair was coming loose from my ponytail the other day.’
‘Ignore me. I’m a complete and utter jerk.’ One who noticed everything about Anna. One who’d been dreaming of this moment for far too long, and telling himself it mustn’t happen.
‘You’re forgiven. After all, this isn’t really in your plan, is it?’
A sudden dose of honesty that jerked him back to his senses. ‘No, it’s not.’
‘That’s okay. We both have a little baggage.’
So there was more to it than she’d said. Jamie had suspected that was the case—no one got married and divorced within a year without a few scars to show for it.
‘Both of us?’
‘There’s no story to tell, if that’s what you mean.’
‘Everyone’s got a story. But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.’
‘Okay. I don’t want to talk about it.’ She looked up at him, and Jamie suddenly forgot everything other than the pale blue of her eyes. ‘But since we both seem to have settled on the same eventual outcome, then I guess a diversion doesn’t matter.’
‘You are never a diversion.’ That mattered. That Anna knew how important she was to him, and that this had meant something.
She smiled up at him. ‘Thank you. In that case, you can kiss me again.’
He didn’t need to be told a second time. If this was the only thing that he could share with Anna, then he wanted it to matter. Jamie kissed her, feeling her move against him, her arms tightening again around his neck.
* * *
He’d found another side of Anna. She was passionate and giving and yet she knew how to end things. She made him feel that this hadn’t been one big mistake, a lapse of self-control that should be forgotten as soon as possible. No apologies and no regrets. Just an understanding that they should stop before it led somewhere that neither of them was ready to go.
Jamie’s head was fine with that. His heart would follow if he repeated the words enough times, but right now it didn’t know how to beat without taking up her rhythm. Without thrilling at her smile as they collected cooking apples that had fallen from the low cordons at one end of the orchard, filling their pockets with them.
‘Apple and blackberry?’ They’d started on their way back to the house, and Anna stopped by the bushes. Jamie nodded, cupping his hands to receive the blackberries as she picked them.
‘We’ll give them to Caroline. She can use them for a pie tomorrow.’
Anna nodded, popping a blackberry into her mouth. ‘Mmm... They’re sweet. Try one.’
She laughed as he shrugged,
his hands too full to comply. Anna made a show of searching amongst the branches, curved and heavy with fruit, until she found a large blackberry.
‘This one looks nice.’ She popped it into his mouth, and Jamie smiled.
‘Yeah. That’s the best one.’
‘Hold on a minute...’ She raised her juice-stained fingers to his mouth, and he felt her wipe away a smudge. ‘That’s better.’
He could do this for the rest of the morning, and the better part of the afternoon as well. Then he could sit by the fire with Anna, maybe roasting a few chestnuts as the evening closed in around them. But he had guests and it was about time he made a start on lunch, even if it was just a matter of putting the lasagne he’d made into the oven and taking the salad out of the fridge.
‘We’d better go back. You have important work to do today.’ Anna was smiling up at him.
‘Yeah. Though to be honest, I’d rather be here...’
‘I know. But this is an opportunity that you can’t miss.’
