She continued to talk about that summer, the blossom, the way that ever since antebellum had been one of her favorite words. She chattered as if my fingers weren’t tangled in her hair, lingering over her neck, tracing her shoulder blades. God, she was mesmerizing. She smelled so sweet, so like summer. How had I resisted her allure for so long? Not seen how important she was to me? How precious, how sexy? My skin felt tight, as if I were going to burst if I didn’t feel her lips on mine.

“Ashleigh,” I whispered.

But instead of turning and reaching for me as I had expected, she stilled for a second before thrusting the book back on the shelf and hurrying out of the study.

What?

Had I done something wrong? Was I imagining the electricity between us?

I stalked after her to find her stuffing her phone back in her bag. Was she leaving? “Ashleigh.”

“I can’t. I mean, I melt when you’re near me—”

My heart surged. I smiled and she looked away. “That’s good, Ashleigh. Me too.”

“But you don’t get it. It’s been happening to me for years. I mean, it can’t feel the same for you. It’s too soon. It’s just been a few weeks since . . .”

“Since I woke up to what’s been right in front of me? That makes me an idiot, not unsure of my feelings. If I could turn back time and do things differently, realize what I had with you before, I’d do it. But I can’t, and I’m never going to be able to.”

“I know.” Her voice crackled as she spoke.

“It doesn’t mean this can’t work. Tell me what to do.” I just wanted to get to the part where I could hold her. I was ready. Couldn’t she see?

“I just need some time. You need some time.”

“I really don’t need more time.” I exhaled. “Will you ever be ready to trust me?”

“I don’t know, Luke. I’m scared. I’m sorry.”

Ashleigh

I was fucking up everything. Having Luke so close was confusing. It was as if I were careening down a mountain in a car with no brakes. I didn’t know what to do or how to stop it, but I knew how it was going to end.

Everything was so fucking perfect; it was maddening. He’d left Emma, rented his own place, taken up a hobby. Jesus, he’d even thrown out that bloody awful sofa he’d had since college. He was ticking every box that said he was ready. So why was I sitting with my head in my hands rather than lying naked beneath him?

The fact was, it was all too perfect, all too quick. I’d been worried Luke would see my concerns as a checklist for him to work though and conquer. I needed him to take the time to look at what he really wanted. Surely there was no way in the three weeks since we’d last kissed, last seen each other naked, that Luke could have worked through everything.

The problem was he looked ready; he seemed ready; he felt ready. His fingers on my neck lit me up. I was so tightly wound that maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see. I needed to jolt some sense back into myself.

“Ashleigh.” He said my name as if conjuring a spell. When had I become Ashleigh to him?

“I should go.”

The sofa dipped as he sat beside me. “I’m sorry if I wasn’t meant to touch you. I just . . . You look so touchable. I thought you wanted me to.”

I exhaled. That was the problem. Luke touching me was all I wanted. I scrubbed my hands across my face. “I do,” I said in a small voice. Instantly his hand went to my lower back, circling, soothing. He felt so easy, so right.

“Hey,” he said, pulling my hands from my face, cupping my cheek and forcing my eyes to his.

This man I’d been in love with my whole life seemed like he wanted me. Why couldn’t it be this easy? I tilted my head into his hand as he pulled me onto to his lap.

“I got it, Ashleigh. I understood why you put the brakes on at first. But now? I want this. I want you.” His words had the opposite of their intended effect. He seemed so certain, and I knew he couldn’t be. Not in such a short space of time.

I scrambled off his knee. “No.”

“No, you don’t believe me? No, you don’t want me back?”

I did believe him, and of course I wanted him but it was too soon. “Not yet. You’re not ready.”

“Fucking hell, Ashleigh. How is it you get to decide when I’m ready? I’m telling you I am. And you know it. You’re in my flat, flirting with me, teasing me. Is that what this is? Are you just trying to make me want something I can’t have so I know how you’ve felt all these years?”

His voice became tighter, harder, louder with every word. He rose from the sofa, and I backed away from him. We’d had relatively few arguments over the years, but I remembered each one of them in their every detail. I regretted every cross word that had ever gone between us. “That’s not fair, Luke. You think I’m trying to pay you back?”

“Well? Are you?”

My hand grasped my chest. How could he think I’d ever want to hurt him? All I was doing was trying to protect myself. I needed to get out. I didn’t want him to see me cry, and I knew tears were next.

I grabbed my bag and headed toward the door. He followed me. “Are you just going to leave? That’s it? No discussion? Fucking perfect.”

“We’re not having a discussion. You’re shouting at me. I’m just trying—” I continued toward the door, stopping as I reached for the handle.

“To do what, exactly? Keep yourself and me miserable? Give yourself a reason not to be with me?”

The corridor was dark, but I could still see the shadow of Luke’s enormous frame covering me. He stood so close that if I just moved back an inch, my body would be pressed against his.

“Please.” I wasn’t sure what I was asking for. For him to be patient with me, for him to let me leave.

“Tell me what you want.” He spoke softly this time.

“I want to be sure of you and how you feel. If overnight you’ve decided you want me then just as quickly you can change your mind again. I want to be sure I’m not the easy option—”

“Believe me, I don’t think you’re the easy option. Especially not at the moment.” He sighed, and I felt him move away from me. I turned to face him. He was leaning against the wall, his hands stuffed in his pockets, his head bowed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Tell me how long I have to wait, what I have to do. I get that it was too soon after Emma when we first . . . But now—”

“There’s so much at stake.” My family, my security, my world were on the line.

“But so much to gain.”

“It’s still only a few weeks.”

“But not in my head, Ashleigh. I don’t think I was ever in deep with Emma. Not like I am with you. This is different. I can’t go back. You mean too much to me for me to think that this can’t work.”

My pulse was jumping in my neck. He was saying everything I wanted to hear. “We just need time.”

“I don’t.” He sounded so sure. “You might need time but I’m ready for the next stage of my life, and I don’t want to miss a moment.”

“Then will you give me time?” Maybe that was it. Maybe I needed time to adjust, to trust Luke’s feelings for me.

“How long?”

“I don’t know. Live your life, Luke. If we’re meant to happen, we’ll know when the time is right for both of us.”

Luke

“Wow, your pace has really come on.” Fiona grabbed my wrist, pressing at buttons on my tracker. “Yeah. Your speed has gone up by twenty percent in just a few weeks. That’s incredible.”

I fell forward, grasping my knees and desperately pulling air into my lungs as I waited for the thudding in my chest to reduce so I could speak, think.

Fiona was breathless, but didn’t seem close to passing out the way I was. How embarrassing. I knew she’d been training for far longer, but I hadn’t started from nothing. I’d always been a runner.

“Jesus, you’re fit,” I said, glancing up at her, finally able to form words.