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‘That’s impressive,’ he said.
‘I want to make a difference,’ she said. ‘Yes, it’s a little bit more expensive than using the cash and carry supermarket, and my prices reflect that—but my customers know that when they buy from me they’re supporting local businesses and reducing their carbon footprint. And that’s important to them as well as to me.’
He could just see Abigail being named local businessperson of the year. And he was proud of the woman she’d become: bright, confident and with a huge heart. The woman he’d always known she’d become. The woman he missed so very much...
Not that he could tell her that. He didn’t have the right. Not any more.
‘It sounds as if you’re really settled. Though I’m guessing the hours you work are ridiculous.’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t mind. I love it here. I love the café, I love my staff, and I love Great Crowmell.’
Which was a timely warning for him. He didn’t love it here. He didn’t love the town, he didn’t want to come back here, and his job was in London. There was no room for compromise, not when they lived three hours apart. That would be way too much of a commute for either of them.
So keeping things polite and a little bit distant would be the best the two of them could do. As for that weird yearning: he’d just have to try and bury it until he was back in London.
He managed to make polite conversation until the end of the meal, and then drove her back to Great Crowmell. Even if he hadn’t hired the cottage next door to hers, he would’ve walked her home—his father had impressed the importance of good manners on him.
‘Goodnight,’ he said outside her front door, and leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. Just to prove to both of them that they could do this—that they would be fine around each other at the wedding.
Except somehow his lips didn’t meet her cheek.
Instead, they brushed against her lips. Very gently. Very lightly.
It felt as if he’d been burned.
But, instead of backing away sensibly, he found himself kissing her again. Then he drew back far enough to look her straight in the eye.
Sea green.
Not grey.
And her lips were parted very, very slightly. Inviting him. Telling him that it was the same for her—that right at this second she wanted them to kiss, too.
Memories collided in his head. The first time he’d kissed her, in the moonlight among the roses. The first time he’d kissed her before making love. Kissing her over the anvil in Gretna Green, their first kiss as a married couple.
How he’d missed her.
How he wanted her.
And he couldn’t help leaning forward again. This time, she let him deepen the kiss, sliding her hands round the back of his neck and twining her fingers in his hair. And he wrapped his arms round her, holding her close, feeling the thud of her heartbeat—just as she must be feeling the thud of his.
Her mouth was so soft. So sweet. And it felt as if every nerve end in his body had just burst into life after five years of being dormant.
Shaking, he broke the kiss, and they stared at each other.
* * *
That really, really wasn’t supposed to happen, Abigail thought. Right now Brad was more off limits than he’d ever been. It was Ruby’s wedding in four days’ time and they were supposed to be keeping a truce, not trying to rekindle the past. She was supposed to be telling him that they could be friends and nothing else.
But the way he’d just kissed her had blown her mind.
His hands were still splayed on her back and her hands were still loosely round his neck. Right now, they were like the teenagers they’d once been, kissing in a doorway.
And she felt just as she had the first time he’d ever kissed her, in that rose garden. Light-headed, needing to hold on to him to stop herself falling over.
This was a really bad idea.
They needed to stop.
Now.
She slid her hands back from his neck and took one step backwards, not quite trusting herself to stand upright, but thankfully that one step meant she could lean against her front door. And he clearly felt the same way that she did—spooked by the strong sensual reaction between them and not knowing what to do—because he stopped holding her, but he didn’t move from where he was.
