Page 88 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

ChapterThirty

Owen scanned emails. Two days’worth. He’d been slack. Despite telling Lexie this was not a holiday, and they needed to be professional, he’d been enjoying himself far too much. He glanced over to the water and watched as Lexie, up to her knees in the calm sea, stooped to wet the inside of her mask.

He sighed and forced himself back to the work at hand. The first email was from Margaret telling him Emi had a cold and was off school, so he might not see her when he returned from his little jaunt. Owen scowled. Did Margaret think he was on holiday, or was she playing games again? Irritated, he moved on to the next message: Another from George, saying he hoped Owen wasn’t enjoying himself too much with the delectable Lexie and he was looking forward to seeing the article. When did he think he might send the first draft? Owen growled, ‘Slave driver.’

Then there was one fromKate.

Hello Owen, Sorry I haven’t emailed sooner. I thought you might be busy, and I was worried you might be cross with me, even though George said the swap was all right with you.

Owen smiled. The swap was certainly all right with him. He read on:

I thought you might like to let Lexie know that Xander and I are back together. I’ve moved in with him, and we’re getting married. You’re invited to the wedding – both of you (obviously).

Owen quickly rattled off a reply:

Hi Kate.

Congratulations and thank you for the wedding invitation.

Keep that man on a short leash from now on. Don’t be a doormat – take that advice from someone who knows about these things. Serious stuff over – I’m pleased for you. If Xander is the man for you, then good on you but remember what I said when we first met. If you ever need anyone to talk to, I’m on the end of a phone (when I’m not on an exotic island or helping frogs out of ponds). Seriously – I wish you both every happiness, and I will tell Lex, as soon as she comes out of the water.

He looked up, smiled at seeing the yellow top of Lexie’s snorkel moving across the flat calm water, and comforted at the sight, he returned to typing:

She’s swimming right now and doing some underwater filming.

As for being cross with you. NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. How could you think I would be? You and George have done more for me than any other person alive, except for Lex.

Owen stopped, re-read what he’d written and deleted the last sentence, replacing it with: you and George have done so much for me.

He pressed send and sat back from his laptop, watching the snorkel moving across the bay. Why had he deleted the reference to Lex? She had done the most for him. By listening to him, letting him unburden himself of his dark childhood, she had set him free. Her sunshine had burnt away the dusty pain of his past, and he was … Owen paused, reflecting on his mood. He was happy. Such a little word to describe what he was feeling. He was sure there must be a better one, but for the moment it would do, because it was true. With Lex, he was happy and felt like he was at last a whole person.

Owen smiled. He would have to tell Lexie how he felt. It was nearly time to take the final leap and tell her exactly what she meant to him. He’d do it later, when he’d finished George’s precious article.

* * *

An hour later,Owen typed the final sentence. Not quite what George had wanted. There was no conclusive case for preventing Sawan’s development as a holiday complex. Apart from advice to take care on the steep inclines inland, there was nothing to say. The place was safe. Owen sighed. He would have liked to protect the island, but as he had rightly thought when George proposed the assignment, he was not Superman.

He saved the document, opened his email, and typed a quick message to George.

Here’s the article. It feels complete to me – like the last word. Sorry, I couldn’t make a watertight case for not building here. I’ve put a bit in about rising sea levels. That might help. Let me know if you need any revisions. You’ve already got some of Lexie’s great photos, and she’s doing underwater filming right now. So there’ll be more images and videos to follow.

And thanks, George. I think you (and Kate) might have turned my life around.

Owen.

He attached the article and pressed send.

Looking up from his laptop, Owen wondered if Lexie would like some company.

Her clothes were still where she’d left them on the beach. Surely, she couldn’t still be diving? He scanned the beach. She definitely wasn’t on it.

‘Lex?’ He stood. ‘LEX!’ Grist! Where is she?

He glanced around the camp, in case she had, for some strange reason, crept back into camp, leaving all her stuff on the beach. She wasn’t there. He set off for the beach, yelling her name as he ran.

‘LEX!’

No response – nothing, no sight or sound of her. She was not on the beach, not exploring the rocky edges or paddling in the shallows. She wasn’t sitting in the shade of one of the wild mango trees. She just wasn’t there. Owen spun around, looking back to the camp again in the frantic hope that perhaps he’d missed her quietly resting by the tent or preparing food, something – anything, as long as she was there, laughing at him, thinking he was behaving like a lunatic. He wouldn’t mind how idiotic she thought him, as long as she was there.

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