Page 21 of All Summer Long

‘It’s not that, to be honest.’

She swirled her wine around in her glass, trying to find the right words.

‘This house was never Brad’s dream. It was always mine. We didn’t get to make that many good memories here in the end.’

‘That surprises me,’ he said. ‘It seems like a decent kind of place to lay down foundations.’

Alice nodded. ‘I thought so. Brad just … I don’t know. His life was in London, being here turned out to be too much of a compromise for him.’

‘You weren’t tempted to sell up and go back to the city with him?’

Alice huffed softly. ‘We never had sensible conversations about it. He made his choices without talking to me, including the choice to go to bed with his co-star off screen as well as on.’

Robinson’s green eyes glittered. ‘Tough on you, darlin’.’

She couldn’t deny it. ‘It was. It is.’

Robinson refilled her wine glass.

‘At least you’ve only run as far as the end of the garden. I’m half way round the world and can officially say love still sucks.’

Alice touched her glass against his.

‘Here’s to the official launch of Borne’s broken hearts society.’

‘Let’s throw our very own pity party, Goldilocks,’ he said, pushing his half-eaten food away. ‘I think I’m done with that.’

Alice did the same, surprised that she’d eaten so much in the circumstances, and wondering again if Hazel had hidden any secret potions in the casserole because the way he called her Goldilocks warmed her insides when it should probably have pissed off her inner feminist.

‘What will you do when your six months in Borne is up?’

Robinson pushed his chair back and picked up the plates. ‘Honestly? I don’t have a goddamn clue. I kind of work on a day to day basis. Week to week, if I’m lucky.’

‘But don’t you need to get back to work at some point?’ she asked. Surely someone with such an all-encompassing life as his would have to go back at some point. She thought of the snippets of his concerts she’d seen, all of those fans, all of that fame. His residence in Borne could only ever be temporary.

Robinson’s expression turned melancholy, and he splayed his hands out palm down on the table in front of him. ‘My fingers always ache for my guitar when I don’t play it,’ he said, his eyes hidden from her by his lowered lashes.

She remembered seeing his guitar upstairs in the master bedroom. ‘Can’t you?’

He shook his head slowly. ‘Right now, Alice, I can’t see myself ever making music again.’

Alice couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be for him to have lost his creativity. He was such a big, vital man, but looking at him now she could see that there was a huge part of him missing. His music.

‘Tough on you,’ she said, giving his own phrase back to him because it was so entirely appropriate for the moment. She also reached out and laid her hand over one of his, because it seemed entirely appropriate in the moment to comfort him.

His gaze stayed locked on his hands, on her hand over his, and she lowered her gaze too when his fingers curled around hers, warm and strong. It started out as a thank you for understanding gesture and slid slowly into something else as his thumb stroked back and forth over the sensitive skin at the base of her wrist, over her racing pulse. Alice watched the motion, feeling her breath catch in her throat. He was heartbroken, she was heartbroken, and it was every kind of wrong, but Robinson’s touch against her skin made her desperate for him to keep going. All the same, she gasped in surprise when he reached out and dragged her chair close enough to his for their shoulders to almost touch and then stroked the back of his fingers along her jaw.

‘Alice, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and be real honest. When Lena left me she took my heart with her in her suitcase, but sitting here right now, all I can think about is whether or not you’re naked beneath that bath robe.’

CHAPTER NINE

Much as Alice wanted to undo her robe and show him, she didn’t. Reaching up she covered his hand with hers and regretfully moved it from her jaw to her lap.

‘Robinson, don’t. It’s not going to make either of us feel better.’

‘Are you sure about that, Alice?’ he whispered, massaging her fingers, his face so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. ‘Because right now I’m feeling a whole lot better.’

God, it was tempting. He was gorgeous, and his body was hard and sexy and warm, and her lips wanted to kiss his slightly open ones more than anything.

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