‘I think it will be me thanking you next week, Connor.’
He could sense his number two smiling now as Jack cut the call and looked from one lady to the other. ‘Happy?’
‘Yes!’ they both piped up and he took a gloved hand from each and gave them a squeeze. Content, happy, relaxed...and so very tired. But that could wait. He’d get some sleep tonight. He had a feeling this was a turning point for him—changing his work-life balance and putting his faith in others.
He thought back to that morning and the fear that had gripped him at the idea of Sophia and Lily venturing out alone. No. He wasn’t ready for that. A foreign country, the two people who meant most to him in the world. No. Leaving his company in Connor’s hands was fine. Acceptable even. But letting these two out of his sight in a country he didn’t know. No. Just no.
He gripped their hands tighter, his love for them overriding.
‘Thank you for doing that,’ Sophia suddenly said into the quiet.
‘It’s long overdue.’
‘Yes,’ she said, the vehemence in her voice surprising him. ‘Even if it wasn’t Lily’s birthday, I’d say the same. Everyone needs time off once in a while. Even someone as successful and as invincible as you.’
Invincible? He didn’t feel invincible right now with her eyes looking up at him, their sheen, their concern killing him inside.
‘I know,’ was all he could manage as he fought back the urge to kiss her.
‘Good.’
She wet her lips, her eyes scanning his face, and he realised the urge existed within her too and it was enough. Just to know they shared that need, that she cared for him enough to state her approval of his decision. It was enough.
‘We are here, Mr McGregor.’
* * *
The Reynisfjara black sand beach was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. Not difficult considering she’d barely travelled out of the UK. Even when she’d attended the training courses put on by her company abroad, she’d kept close to the hotel studying, connecting, networking.
And oh, my, how different things are now...
It wasn’t just her travel status changing, it was her whole outlook on life, on what was truly important and what really made her happy. How was it pos
sible for so much to change in such a short space of time?
She pulled her gaze from the waves crashing at the base of the rugged basalt stacks out at sea and looked to Jack. She knew the answer well enough. Even with his woollen hat and his scarf wrapped high around his face leaving her with just a glimpse of his sparkling grey eyes, he made her tummy flutter and her heart warm. At his side was Lily, a perfect miniature copy with her curls escaping her hat, her eyes as grey as his, peering out above the edge of her scarf.
It was the two of them who made her keen to do what she could to repair her relationship with her mum and dad. They made her want more out of life, more than just work.
They were studying the grey basalt columns rising out of the black sand, Jack leaning down to listen to his daughter above the roar of the sea, and she smiled. Lily was likely telling him all about their formation, from lava to volcanic rock... He really hadn’t been lying when he’d said she’d been absorbing every word of the brochure. And Sophia couldn’t be happier to see the delight in Lily’s face at every landmark they visited.
It was the perfect birthday, with or without Aurora playing ball tonight, ever more so to know that even now Jack’s phone was turned off in his jacket. He’d taken it out as soon as they’d stepped out of the car and Lily and Sophia had both glared at it. But he’d simply smiled and declared he was turning it off, saying that all those he cared about were right here with him and that no emergency would be important enough to change that.
It had warmed her top to toe, just as it did now. She’d loved to think...she wanted to think...he’d included her in that sweeping comment, but as much as she now knew she loved him, she had to keep her hope under control.
‘So, birthday girl,’ Jack said, clapping his hands together, ‘are you ready to head to our bubble for the night?’
Lily looked up at him, her gloved hand tugging her scarf away from her mouth. ‘Yes!’
‘Great. Dinner first, though, then bubble.’
She pouted.
‘What—you must be hungry? Aren’t you hungry, Sophia?’
‘We could grab a picnic?’
‘Oh, yes!’ Lily blurted. ‘A picnic under the stars!’