Page 96 of You Only Live Once
‘I’m learning.’ I smiled sadly at him, inwardly cursing the tears filling my eyes. ‘I’m going to head in now.’ I glanced again at Cecily. ‘Perhaps you should too.’
Jack frowned at me for a moment and then glanced in. ‘She’s fine. Cecily’s superpower is always being able to find somebody to talk to.’
‘That’s not exactly the point, though, is it?’
The dark brows knotted. ‘What is the point then, Lily?’
He really was going to make me spell this out for him, wasn’t he? ‘The point is that you should be with your fiancée rather than trying to be chivalrous to your ex-girlfriend, as much as she appreciates the gesture.’
He stared at me and then that smile that I loved so much began to show on his face. He picked up his jacket from where he’d thrown it over the balustrade when I’d refused it and wrapped it around my shoulders before I could protest.
‘God, I miss you.’
‘Jack…’
‘Do you love me?’
‘Jack, you can’t ask me that.’
‘I just did. It’s a simple answer yes or no.’
‘How can you do this to me?’ Tears began streaming down my cheeks.
‘Because I love you. I’ve always loved you and I always will love you. I knew I wasn’t worthy of you when I was younger and, although I was probably seen as callous and likely was to more women than I care to think of, I knew you were different. Special. I knew you didn’t deserve to be treated that way, but I wasn’t sure how to deal with anything more. When I heard you were getting married, it was like someone had pierced my heart – but when I heard about the accident, it was even worse, because I knew how destroyed you were. I’m not the man I was back then, but I had to wait until you realised that, even though I knew I would love you until the end of my days.’
I pulled away from him, staggering a little as my heel caught on the paving. I reached out to steady myself, but Jack was already there, wrapping his arms around me. Pushing against his broad chest I shook my head. ‘You can’t say that. Not when you’re marrying another woman. It’s not fair to her or me.’
‘I’m not.’
I gave a snort of disbelief. ‘I’m pretty sure the astronauts on the International Space Station can see Cecily’s engagement ring with the size of that diamond. It is an engagement ring, right?’ I said, folding my arms across my chest.
Jack took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Yes, it is an engagement ring.’
‘Exactly, so you can’t just go around telling other women you love them and—’
‘But it’s not from me.’
I opened my mouth, closed it, then stared at him for a while. ‘What?’ I said quietly, when I found my voice again.
‘Cecily’s engagement ring isn’t from me. I’m not marrying anyone. Not yet, anyway.’
‘But you’re… together. You came together and your parents seem so happy.’
‘I am Cecily’s escort for the day, and yes, my parents are happy as our two families are finally uniting as they’d always hoped.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Cecily is marrying my brother. Edward fell off a horse yesterday being a stupid arse, and he’s laid up in bed with a bad back. So I am escorting my sister-in-law-to-be to the wedding.’
‘But I thought your parents wanted you to marry her.’
‘I don’t think they really minded which one of us did, and a few months ago, she and Edward were chatting together at a party and for the first time in her life, Cecily realised she was madly in love. Luckily, Ed felt the same.’
‘And how do you feel about that?’
‘Couldn’t be happier for them.’
‘So why has she been watching us ever since you came out here?’
