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Seren waited. Him telling her he was dumping her because he was moving two hundred miles away hadn’t been easy for her to hear. Neither had it been easy to discover he would have finished with her anyway because of a child she didn’t have. If he thoughthehad it hard, he ought to tryhershoes on for size.
‘I love you,’ he said.
Seren tried to draw a breath, but the air was too thick. Putting both hands on the worktop, she thought she might faint, and she lowered her head, turning away from him, praying she wouldn’t pass out.
He loved her. He’d just said so.
But it didn’t change anything.
Or did it?
She managed to suck some oxygen into her beleaguered lungs, and when she could finally speak she discovered she didn’t know what to say.
‘I didn’t take the job,’ Daniel said, into the lengthening silence. ‘I went there with the intention of taking it, but… I love you. I know it’s too late, but I wanted to tell you.’
‘Freya isn’t mine.’
‘I know. My grandad told me.’
‘You should have asked me.’ She looked up, meeting his gaze.
‘Yes, I should. I am so, so sorry.’
‘Would it have made any difference? Or was Freya just an excuse?’
‘I wouldn’t be here if it was.’ He hung his head. ‘What I did, how I treated you, it was inexcusable.’
Seren huffed. You can say that again, she thought, but even as she thought it, her tummy turned over. Dare she hope?
‘Can you forgive me?’ He peeped out from underneath his lashes, and she noticed they were wet. Was he crying?
‘I don’t know.’ She forced the words out through a throat full of glass shards.
His response was little more than a whisper. ‘I understand.’ He turned to leave.
‘Wait. Don’t go.’ Was she about to do the stupidest thing in her life – or the best thing? She thought back to what Aunt Nelly had said about giving her business her best shot, and about how she was seriously considering doing that very thing. If she could take a chance on a travelling Christmas gift shop, surely she could take a chance on Daniel.
What did she have to lose?
Her heart, that’s what.
But she’d lost that already. It was firmly in Daniel’s possession. The question was, did she have the courage to trust him with it?
He was watching her, his face damp, anguish in his eyes. There was pleading too, and suddenly she understood that he was hurting as much as she. Ending their relationship had been as hard for him to do, as it was for her to hear. He’d done it not because he didn’t care for her, but because he cared so deeply about someone else – a child. Admittedly one that wasn’t hers, but if his decision to walk away had been because he didn’t want to risk another child getting hurt, it could be seen as admirable. In a roundabout way.
He’d come back to tell her he loved her and ask for her forgiveness. But there was one thing she wanted to know…
‘If I forgive you, what then?’ she asked. ‘Do you see us getting back together?’
‘That’s what I’m praying for. I’d like us to start over; because, Seren, my love, I had a good long look at my life without you in it, and I didn’t like it one bit.’ He caught his bottom lip between his teeth and shook his head then said, ‘I love you, please believe me.’
She did believe him. ‘I love you, too,’ she said softly. ‘I have one condition. Two actually. The first is that for this to work we’ve got to be open with each other. If something is bothering you, you must promise you’ll talk to me about it.’ She looked at him expectantly, her pulse loud in her ears, her insides somersaulting.
‘I promise. What’s the other?’
‘That you come to the Christmas Tree Farm with me tomorrow and help me with Dippy, because I’ve got an awful lot of garlands and wreaths to sell.’
Daniel briefly closed his eyes and when he opened them again he was smiling softly. ‘I’m going to be there anyway,’ he said. ‘I’m Santa.’
‘Of course you are.’ Their paths had crossed so many times during the past few weeks that there was an inevitability about it. They wouldn’t have been able to escape each other if they’d wanted to. Fate was pushing them together, whether they liked it or not.
Thankfully, Seren wasn’t complaining.
‘Seren…’ Daniel strode across the shed and swept her into his arms. His voice was low and hoarse, and the hunger in it made her head swim and her heart race, but before his head bent to hers and his mouth found her lips, he stroked a thumb across her cheek, wiping away the tears that had spilled over. ‘I promise I’ll never hurt you again,’ he vowed.
As he kissed her, Seren found she believed that, too.
