‘Do you want it back?’
He glowered at her over his shoulder. ‘Keep it and your opinions to yourself. Understood?’
Kay saluted and clicked her heels. ‘Yes, sir.’
* * *
Abby flew back to London the following day in such low spirits two of the flight attendants asked during the journey if she was all right. She mopped at her streaming reddened eyes and told them it was just an allergic reaction. When she came through Customs and saw all the couples being reunited it made her heart feel as if it was being crushed.
Why couldn’t Luke love her? Why couldn’t he want to be with her for ever? Why did he leave her to fend for herself like everyone she had ever loved had done?
There was no way she could have stayed on the island without him. Every corner, every space, every view contained a memory of their time together. All she had now was memories. She didn’t even have any photos of them together because he’d been so darn stubborn about taking any. She’d sneaked a few of him when he wasn’t looking, but there were none of them together. It was as if their time on the island hadn’t happened, it was just a mirage.
Just like her life…
Abby couldn’t avoid the truth any longer. For years she had been hiding behind a web of lies. Telling people who she wished she was instead of who she actually was. She wasn’t the got-it-all-together girl of her blog and column. She was a lonely single young woman from a disadvantaged background who dreamed of having the fairy tale.
But her handsome white knight had locked himself in his tower of guilt and there was nothing Abby could do to change him. She shouldn’t have even tried. If she had just come out with the truth in the beginning she wouldn’t have caused herself so much heartache. So many times she had given people advice in her column but she hadn’t taken it herself.
There was no way she would have told someone to pretend to be engaged to save face. She would have told them a relationship based on a lie wasn’t an authentic relationship. What right did she have to give advice? Her life was a mess. It had always been a mess. Her whole life was a lie. And it had to change.
Right here.
Right now.
She took out her phone and started typing a new column. Felicity might hate her or even fire her for it, but at least Abby would no longer be living a lie.
* * *
Luke couldn’t stop thinking about the island. The sun, the sand, the beach, the bay, and the rock they had dived from. The way the island cut out the rest of the world, created a safe haven where they had been in touch with nature. He couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing food Abby had cooked and the long lazy meals where they had sat under the stars sipping champagne.
But most of all he couldn’t stop thinking about Abby.
She was in his thoughts every minute and every second of the day and night. She was in his body. He would close his eyes and feel her soft little hands moving over him. He could feel her mouth, her lips, her tongue. Her smile was imprinted on his heart. Every time he pictured her smile his heart would contract as if it was being squished between two thick books.
Every time he went home from work his house seemed emptier and lonelier than it ever had before. Even work wasn’t as enjoyable and fulfilling as before. Especially with Kay shaking her head and casting him rolled-eyed looks all the time.
She’d stopped lecturing him but as he was leaving work that day he found Abby’s latest column open on her computer screen. Luke had so far resisted the temptation to read whatever lies Abby was peddling lately, but this time he couldn’t stop himself from reading. It wasn’t a long piece but it was heartfelt and honest. In it Abby shared how she had grown up through the foster system because her parents had had drug and alcohol issues. She spoke of how desperately she had wanted to fit in, to be normal—all the stuff she had told him during their time together.
His heart ached for her, revealing all that to the public. It was such a brave and dignified thing to do, for she crafted it in such a way to help people who were struggling with the same issues as her parents so they didn’t feel judged, but rather to let them know help was at hand. She went on to say her pretence over being engaged to Mr Perfect was something she deeply regretted because there was no such thing as a perfect partner. The only thing you could wish for was to be the best partner you could be and that love would take care of the rest, if you were lucky enough to find someone who loved you.
Luke read that line twice because his vision had suddenly blurred.
If you were lucky enough to find someone who loved you.
Abby loved him. Why had he found that so hard to believe? Or had he been too frightened to believe it? Too worried it wouldn’t last or would be snatched away from him. But he had been the one to sabotage it. He had found someone to love him and he had left her behind alone. He hadn’t even asked her to come with him when work called him away. He had made his work a higher priority than Abby.