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And the memories.
* * *
When Oliver got backfrom his run the next morning, Felicity was in her little pyjama shorts at the island bench studying her computer screen. She looked up with a dazzling smile. “I’m planning my trip up the coast.”
“Really?” His gut constricted. “Already?”
“Yep. I have a flight back to the UK looming, and besides, you’ve got heaps on.”
The muscle in his jaw jumped disconcertingly. They’d agreed all along she’d go up the coast, so why this sudden gut wrench? He sauntered over and grabbed a piece of the watermelon she’d just cut. He was allowing himself fruit as well as coffee in the morning now. When he nuzzled her neck as he passed, he wondered if she shifted away slightly?
“So when do you plan to go?” he asked casually as he made his way over to the coffee machine.
“Well,” she munched on a piece of watermelon, “probably tomorrow.”
He cocked an eyebrow while his heart hammered. “That soon.” Watermelon juice went down the wrong way and he coughed. “How long for?”
“I don’t know. I guess that depends.”
Did this have anything to do with last night, he wondered? He could ask her, of course. Instead, he turned on the coffee grinder, and watched her covertly as she wrote down what he guessed were flight times in a rainbow-coloured notebook.
It was sensible. He had to finish his first draft, had a radio interview and a two-day seminar in Melbourne for retirees coming up. So yeah, he wouldn’t get distracted. But if she was gone for a fortnight, heck, they’d have barely a week together before she returned to England.
He grabbed his coffee cup, tossed the watermelon rind in the bin and tried not to squint at her flight times as he strolled past. “I’ll leave you to it. Just going for a shower.”
As he stripped off his running gear, his phone vibrated on the bathroom cabinet.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping.
His heart sank. No prizes for guessing who that was. Not looking at it, he stepped into the shower.
Yeah, that was the other thing he needed to get on with.
Putting the apartment on the market.
And severing his final link to Leonie.
