Page 53 of A Summer Scandal

‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing?’

‘Good, in the main, I think,’ she said. ‘Although it scares me most of the time.’

‘Really? Life here scares you?’

She snorted. ‘Have you seen where I live? Have you seen your mother blocking me at every turn? Have you seen that hulking great pier out there that I’m now solely responsible for? My life here is big, and bewildering, and it scares the pants off me ninety percent of the time.’

Cal placed his empty glass down. ‘And right now? Are you scared right now?’

She sighed, relaxed by the wine and the company. ‘Am I scared right now? Yes, a little bit.’

‘Of me?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes. Of you.’

He leaned forwards. ‘Come closer.’

She hesitated, then slid her wine glass onto the table and moved forwards to the middle of the sofa. To him.

‘You scare me a little too,’ he said, smoothing his hand over her hair. ‘I’m careful who I spend time with, Violet, because I don’t want to get in over my head. I’m sure you’ve heard all about the fact that I was married.’

His honesty and openness took Violet by surprise. ‘Was?’

Cal played with her fingers, linking his own through hers, though it seemed more for distraction purposes than as a come-on. ‘Was. And in truth, I still am.’

Vi nodded, finding it hard to swallow her disappointment.

‘Ursula left without a trace. I thought we were forever, and she just took off without looking back when the bright lights of America beckoned.’

Violet looked down at their hands. ‘You don’t wear your ring.’

He shook his head, a derisory sound in his throat. ‘I felt like a fool after a while. What kind of guy still wears his wedding ring several years after his wife left him?’

Heavy-hearted, Vi squeezed his fingers. ‘One who still loves his wife?’

He didn’t rush to deny it. ‘Something like that, at the time. It’s hard to end something without knowing why, or what you did wrong. We were so young, we probably shouldn’t have married at all.’

‘And you haven’t heard from her since?’

Cal shook his head. ‘Not a thing. I know she’s alive and well through her brother, but that’s as much information as I’m allowed. It’s taken me a long time to get my head around it, Violet.’

‘And have you?’

‘I’ve had to learn to live with the situation. I expect one day she’ll send a letter asking me for a divorce, that she’ll fall in love with someone else and finally decide to cut our ties.’

It was hard to read his words, to decipher the emotion behind them. ‘Do you want that too?’

He looked into Violet’s eyes for a few quiet moments, and she held her breath waiting for him to answer, because it mattered.

‘You know what I really want right this very second?’ he said. As he spoke, he ran one fingertip over her collarbone.

He was going to kiss her and she wasn’t going to stop him. She wanted it every bit as much.

‘What do you want, Cal?’

The trace of a smile ghosted his lips, and that trademark Cal spark lit his eyes.

‘To go skinny dipping.’

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