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“I’ve always been fascinated by geology. That and numbers. Numbers won.”
“Gondwanaland.” She sighed. “It sounds almost mythical. Don’t you find it amazing how everything in nature changes? All the time.”
He glanced at her, brows furrowed. “Amazing and… somewhat annoying.”
“You want guarantees?”
His mouth quirked. “I guess I like the myth of humans having some control.”
She thought of his neat desk, his perfectly folded and ironed clothes, and the desperate, haunted look she’d seen in his eyes last night, and wound her arms round her midriff to stop herself reaching out and touching him. “I actually find it weirdly reassuring—that life will carry on regardless, that it doesn’tneedus at all,” she said pensively. “Maybe having cancer changed my perspective, maybe I’ll never see the world quite the same as other people.”
As if in agreement, Scarlet made her presence felt. Glancing around, Felicity found a rock and sat down.
Oliver sat on an adjacent rock. “How did you find out you had cancer?”
“During a dance performance.”
“Really?”
She sent him a mock-glare. “Yeah, I know, after my dancing prowess at the wedding you’d never guess, right?” His smile was kind, not at all teasing and her breath hitched a little. “Henry took me to seeLord of the Danceon my ninth birthday. I fell in love with Irish dancing and badgered my mum until she enrolled me in a class. I joined a kids’ dance troupe that toured local festivals, nothing big, but I was actually good at it and I was determined to take up dancing as a career.” She sighed, remembering those dreams. “I was at a rehearsal one day when I tripped and fell and this lump developed just above my knee. Everyone thought I was just a slow healer. But it didn’t go, it just got more painful. And after that came the diagnosis, the operations, so, you know, dancing wasn’t an option for me after that…”
There was silence, both of them staring out towards the Bight before he asked, “Was that what you lost?” She frowned, not comprehending. “When I was behaving like a dick last night, you said you’d lost something you wanted more than anything else in the world. Was that it?”
Gosh, he remembered her saying that?
Quickly, she answered, “Yes.” At sixteen shehadwanted to be a dancer, it was true. “How do you do this, Oliver?”
Now it was his turn to frown. “Do what?”
“Get all my stories out of me.”
“You intrigue me.” She was totally unprepared for that. The tingle started in her ears, spread to her cheeks. “Well thank you, kind sir. I guess you intrigue me too.”
His features tightened; a shadow fell over his face, she thought. But then she looked up and realised there were actual clouds rolling in from behind them.
Surprised, she asked, “Is it likely to rain?”
Oliver glanced up, shook his head. “No chance. It’s always hot and dry in February. They’ll pass.”
