Page 86 of Just Like in the Movies

‘Just close your eyes,’ she demanded, enjoying her own assertiveness and the ability to breathe again, if only for a little while. ‘I’m going to rewind the scene, so you can remember it.’

He closed his eyes. And her breath slowed in her lungs. Not ending the pain, but easing it, a little.

She studied him in the half light – and savoured the moment he was giving her – determined to remember it always. The fall of hair which had dropped back over his forehead, the lean lines and perfect angles of his face, the dimple in his chin. He was never meant to be hers for the long haul, but he had been hers for a little while, and she refused to regret a single second – which was really the main reason she could not fall apart right now.

One piercing blue eye opened. ‘I’m waiting,’ he said, then snapped it shut.

She laughed. ‘Okay, okay.’ She flexed her fingers and then started humming The Way We Were theme. Loudly.

‘Oh, hell,’ he said, but his lips quirked and she smiled, her heart skipping into her throat. However tough this parting was going to be, however poignant, they would always have this moment. And so many more.

‘Of course, I really should have had gel nails fitted for this …’ Ruby said as she leaned towards him. The stool wobbled, and she planted her palm to stop herself falling forward, only to have it land on the taught muscle of his thigh.

The muscle tensed beneath her hand. And heat shot through her.

‘If this is just an excuse to feel me up …’

‘Shut up,’ she said, flustered as she snatched her traitorous hand back, took another sip of her lemon-tini, then rubbed the burning palm on her own thigh.

She started humming again, her heart beating a giddy tattoo when his lips quirked. Then she reached out a nail, and slowly, delicately lifted a thick lock of his hair and smoothed it back from his brow. And all the pain seemed to coalesce into one simple thought.

However much this hurts, it was always

, always worth it.

His eyes opened as the song got caught in her throat, her whole body stilled from the lightning strike of emotion – and possibly one too many sips of lemon-tini before wine o’clock – as she found herself trapped in the sapphire blue, which for once didn’t look cynical or pragmatic. He simply stared at her, his gaze pensive and intense. And she wondered what he was thinking.

Her lungs squeezed tight under her rib cage, the moment suspended in time – and she wondered if this hurt as much for him as it did for her.

But then he broke the spell. ‘That’s it?’

‘Yes, you still don’t remember it?’ she said, appalled and breathless at the same time. ‘The scene in the club, where Hubbell’s on shore leave in his Navy whites and Babs spots him and he’s sleeping and she hasn’t seen him in years and she flicks his hair back. And it makes him wake up and their eyes connect.’

Just like ours, now.

Her rib cage contracted so much, she almost couldn’t breathe. ‘And he hits on her and they end up in her apartment. But the next morning he treats her like a one night stand. It’s heartbreaking and awesome at the same time, because she loves him and has always loved him and he doesn’t even know it.’

She finally careered to a stop, realizing she had gone too far. Way way too far.

You’re not in love with him, Ruby, that is not allowed.

‘No,’ he said, softly. And she heard the apology in his voice. ‘Don’t remember it.’

‘Oh, well.’ She sat back, knowing as she gathered the tattered remnants of her dignity – and her bruised heart – that while it hurt now, she had to carry on breathing through the pain. ‘I guess that explains then why you don’t appreciate everything that movie has to offer.’ She took a sip of the lemon-tini, only to find her glass empty.

She swallowed, knowing what was coming next but suddenly knowing she would survive it, just like she had survived everything else.

Perhaps she would never be able to watch Babs getting touchy-feely with Bob’s perfect fringe again while watching The Way We Were without seeing Luke but did that have to be a bad thing? Movies had saved her once upon a time, but she’d finally discovered, thanks to Luke, that real life could be so much more exciting than anything Bob and Babs had to offer.

He lifted the keys from the bar and, taking her hand in his, placed the bunch in the centre of her palm. He wrapped her fingers around them as the deep pulse of desire in her abdomen joined her erratic heartbeat and the pulsing pain in her chest. ‘The work’s finished, Ruby.’

She nodded, staring at their closed fists, unable to speak round the great big wodge of sadness lodged in her throat. If they could have been two different people, this might have worked. But she’d always have the memories.

He let go of her hand, then tucked a knuckle under her chin. ‘You look after yourself, and The Royale, okay?’ he said, emotion thickening his voice.

She sent him a watery smile and nodded, holding the pain deep inside – letting it sear her lungs and sting her eyes but refusing to let it overwhelm her before she had watched him walk out of the bar.

‘Has he left for good?’ Brynn murmured having come back down her end of the bar as the door swung shut behind Luke.

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