Page 70 of Hearts Colliding
Alex peered at him as he hugged his legs close to his chest, a soldier sticking his head up out of a trench and waiting for the bullet. Ryan swallowed.With what was submitted…This wasn’t as simple as to develop or not develop. He asked the only question he could.
“So what are you going to do, because you’re not going to abandon all your plans, are you?”
“I can’t live in this house again, Ry. I just can’t. There are too many memories.” Alex uncurled himself. Crawling along the sofa, he settled himself into Ryan’s lap and lay his head on his chest.
Ryan enveloped Alex in his arms. Drifting his fingers through Alex’s hair, he was rewarded with a tiny sigh as Alex melted into his touch.
“You realise you haven’t answered my question?”
“I know, and you deserve my honesty. All the additional housing, the plans for the Jenkins farm. Forget it all. They weren’t what any of it was about. It was about this house, that was all it was ever about.” Alex pushed himself up and rubbed his hands down his face.
Relief raged through Ryan. He wanted to scream and shout it from the rooftops. Him, the war council, the village, they’d got what they wanted, but…
“You don’t even begin to know how relieved I am. All the villagers — or most — will be too. But you’re holding something back.”
Alex placed his palm on Ryan’s cheek. The touch was gentle, warm, and comforting. It felt good. It felt like home.
“Do you remember, when I said the house would be lived in again, but not by me?”
Ryan nodded. The meeting, in the village hall. A whole lifetime had passed since then.
“I haven’t thought it through, haven’t thought of anything much other than us.”
Alex’s lips curved up in a tentative smile, plucking at the strings of Ryan’s heart.
“But what I am sure about is that the house deserves to be loved and filled with the happiness of people who want to be here. I can’t love this place because too much has gone on here for me, but that doesn’t mean others shouldn’t. As for the detail of what I’ll do with it, I can’t think that far ahead, not for now. But everything else I put forward? That’s all off the table, I promise.”
Ryan tugged Alex to him, wrapping him in his arms, holding him close and tight, holding the treasure he’d almost lost. Finding Alex’s lips, he took his mouth in a long, deep kiss. The warmth, the wetness, comforting and thrilling at the same time. Everything about this man tasted right and natural.
“Will you stay? Here in the Harbour I mean?” Ryan breathed against Alex’s lips.
“It’s another piece of the jigsaw to fit together. I have to maintain a presence in London, for some of the time at least, but I believe I could make it work. If you want me to?”
Ryan pulled back and held Alex out at arm’s length. That echo of doubt, of insecurity, that laced Alex’s question had to be ripped away and thrown to the wind.
“Do you think I don’t? Or that I’ve got any doubts about us? You’re who I want. I knew it from the moment I set eyes on you, but I refused to accept it because it was easier to be your enemy. Getting to know you piece by piece, even though I told myself I didn’t want to, discovering the real Alex Love behind that stiff, uptight—”
“Stiff and uptight?”
Ryan barked out a laugh. “Oh, yeah, and that’s putting it politely.” He cupped Alex’s face between his palms, his laughter falling away. “But I did come to know who the real you was, and even though I tried to convince myself I didn’t like what I saw, I did. Too much, way too much, and I knew that nothing was ever going to be the same for me again.”
“No, nothing’s the same, not anymore. How can it be? It’s exciting but it’s frightening too. All my certainties, everything I believed I wanted to do, it’s all crumbled to dust. I was following a map, so sure the path I was taking was the right one when all the time it was leading me in the wrong direction.”
“Are you on the right path now?”
Ryan’s heart danced as a smile lifted Alex’s lips, as he nodded, all the time holding Ryan’s gaze.
“Yes, I am. It’s the better path, but it could be the perfect one if you’re willing to travel it with me right to its very end. Are you?”
Would he share the journey with Alex? There was, and could only be, one answer, as he crushed his mouth to Alex’s and pressed him down into the sofa.
EPILOGUE
NINE MONTHS LATER
Alex stared up at the house. It was quiet, all the workers having left for the day. No drilling, no hammering, no trucks delivering fixtures and fittings. The only sounds to be heard were early evening birdsong, and the whisper of the soft spring breeze through the trees.
A tangled mix of emotions tightened in his stomach. So many memories, some good, but so many more edged with darkness. He’d done the right thing, made the right decision, for himself and for Love’s Harbour.
