In a movement that was swift and confident, Gabe slid the dress off her shoulders so it pooled on the floor, leaving her only in her lacy briefs.
He stepped back a bit to admire her for a moment before he was kissing her again, his hands caressing all over her body as if he wanted to stroke her everywhere at once.
She reached up to slide his jacket off his shoulders and then started trying to undo the buttons on his shirt, but she was shaking so much that her fingers refused to do the job required of them.
Gabe realised this too. ‘You’re shaking.’
‘I’m just a bit chilly.’ It wasn’t a total lie. The room wasn’t cold but it was far from warm and toasty either. Her nipples had already hardened and it was only partly out of arousal.
‘Well we can’t have that.’
He scooped her up and carried her to the bed. He laid her down, covering her with the fur blanket, then he quickly divested himself of all his clothes apart from his tight black boxer shorts. Pip’s eyes fell on the tattoo again and a stab of guilt punched her in the stomach, and lay there among all the nerves she had over that evening. He climbed under the covers with her, taking her in his arms.
‘Body heat is the best way to keep warm,’ he said, and she giggled against his lips, trying not to let any thought other than being with him invade her brain.
But although they were warm and cosy under the covers, the shaking hadn’t stopped, in fact it had probably got worse.
As Gabe ran his hands down her body, he stopped and pulled his mouth from hers. ‘Pip, you’re trembling like a leaf, what’s wrong?’
‘Nothing, just a bit nervous… And excited and scared all at once.’
He pulled back completely, his face clouding with concern. ‘What are you scared of?’
‘It’s OK. I’m just being silly. Don’t stop.’
‘It’s not silly, what are you scared of?’
‘Oh god, everything. That I won’t be good enough for you, you’ve been with all these women and I’ve had sex once, twelve years ago, and I probably wasn’t that good then. I’m scared you’ll sleep with me and there’ll be no spark at all for you and then you’ll decide that you don’t want to pursue this after all. I’m scared that making love to you will make me fall in love with you again and I’m worried that you won’t feel the same. And I’m scared of hurting you, of you falling in love with me and me being incapable of loving you back. I’m scared that I’m too messed up to ever have a proper relationship and that somehow I’ll find some way to cock this up and hurt you all over again.’
He smiled as he ran his hand down her side. ‘I’m scared about all those things too. Except about there being no spark. I’m not worried about that at all. We have that, we’ve both felt it when we’ve kissed.’
He hooked his finger in the waistband of her knickers and slid them slowly down her legs. His hand travelled back up the inside of her thigh and when he reached the top, she knew he could feel how much she wanted him. His eyes darkened as he stroked over her most sensitive part and her breath caught, but then he slid his hand away, back down her leg, reaching the back of her knee and hooking it over his hip as he lay on his side. Immediately, she could feel how ready he was for this too.
‘We have spark, Pip, that’s very clear, and yes it might be lust and passion and need and not love yet, but there’s no way sex can be rubbish when we feel like this for each other. And as for the rest, this is a second chance for us; let’s not spoil it with recriminations and regrets and thoughts of what we should have done or what could have been. If this doesn’t work out between us it’ll be because we’re two different people now, and probably shows that we wouldn’t have lasted anyway. But it won’t be because we didn’t give it our all or because we were too hung up on the past to enjoy what we have now. If you walk away from this or it ends for whatever reason, it won’t break me. I’m a grown man and I’m big enough and ugly enough to look after myself.’
She smiled.
‘And I don’t think you’re messed up at all. You had a rough childhood and you weren’t loved as much as you should have been. It doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of love now. In fact, I would assume the opposite. You know what it’s like to be in a non-loving relationship, you know what was missing and I imagine, subconsciously maybe, you will strive to fill those holes.’
He ran a gentle finger down her cheek.
‘I want you to trust me and feel safe. I don’t want to push you into doing something you’re not comfortable doing. We can just spend the night together tonight and we can kiss and cuddle just like we did last night, and when you’re ready in a few weeks or a few months from now, we can make love then. I don’t want to rush this and risk scaring you away.’
Pip was just about to argue. There was no way she was not going to make love to him tonight, not after looking forward to it so much. But she was interrupted as the room was suddenly bathed in a bright cranberry glow.
She looked up at the sky through the glass roof and gasped as the pinky red lights danced and flickered across the sky.
‘Oh my god, is that really the Northern Lights, or is it just a trick of some LED lights in the glass roof?’
Gabe smiled. ‘It’s the real thing. I was wondering if this would happen tonight, long-range forecasts predicted that it would, but you can never tell what the weather is going to do.’
Pip rolled onto her back to watch it properly and as she marvelled at the shimmering lights as they slowly rolled across the sky, turning through shades of green, turquoise and even with hints of purples and blues, Gabe held her hand.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it, I’ve seen photos and videos but this is just…magnificent,’ Pip whispered. ‘I’m so glad I got to share it with you.’
Gabe squeezed her hand. ‘I’m glad too.’
After watching it for the longest time and with no sign of it stopping, Pip rolled back onto her side to look at Gabe and he rolled onto his side too, entwining his fingers with hers.
‘Remember what you said about some people believing that the Northern Lights are spirits in the sky, guiding the lost travellers home?’
Gabe nodded.
‘You are my home Gabe, I firmly believe I was supposed to come back to you, it just took a lot longer than we would have liked. I want to be with you tonight, I want to make love to you: there is nothing I want more right now. Yes I’m nervous, but those nerves would be the same if I waited six months to make love to you. I just want it to be perfect, but I’m with you, so it can’t get any more perfect.’
He swallowed and shifted closer, his hand on her hip bringing her closer to him.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely.’ She smiled as she glanced up at the Northern Lights again, briefly, as they danced and swirled in the darkness. ‘Do you know that the Chinese believe that couples who make love under the Northern Lights will be lucky in love, that they’ll stay together forever?’
He grinned. ‘I’ve not heard that one before. But if it’s true, it seems a shame to waste this opportunity. Who knows when the Northern Lights will appear again?’
With his hand round the back of her neck, he kissed her, half rolling on top of her as his other hand slid between her legs. She moaned against his lips as soon as he touched her, the nerves and fear suddenly vanishing. It felt so right being with him, like somehow his lips and his body were made for hers. She wrapped her arms around him, needing to feel his body pressing into hers. He was so familiar in so many ways; though his body was broader, and stronger, it was still the Gabe she knew and loved. She knew his kiss, the way he smelled, it was exactly like coming home. His hands were more skilled now, he knew exactly where to touch her and how to elicit a reaction from her and she loved the confidence he had with her body, and in no time at all she was tumbling over the edge, panting and moaning unapologetically.
He pulled back slightly to look at her, his face filled with adoration as he simply stared at her as though he was studying her, taking her all in.
He leaned over to the drawers and grabbed a condom. ‘I came prepared.’
She laughed. ‘I’m so glad.’
Gabe knelt up between her legs and she watched as he rolled the condom on. Amazingly, he seemed bigger there too.
He leaned over her, bracing himself on his forearms, and she wrapped her legs around him as he slid slowly inside her. He felt indescribably good. She reached up to stroke his face, feeling the stubble under her fingers. He slowly lowered himself on her and she knew there was no greater feeling in the world than being pinned to the bed by his weight. He kissed her softly, barely moving at all, and she guessed he was waiting to give her body a chance to accept him, which it did very quickly, her whole body melting into his.
He started to move, slow, careful, reverential strokes as if he was afraid she might break. He didn’t take his eyes off her for one second. He was being so careful and she loved him for that. She was falling for this man and judging by the way he was looking at her, he was falling for her too.
Gabe captured her hands in one of his and stretched them out above her head, causing her to arch against him, which made him go deeper inside and cause him to press against the most sensitive part of her.
‘Gabe,’ Pip whispered, feeling need building in her again, which surprised her when it hadn’t been that long since the first time he had made her come. She pulled him in tighter with her legs and he smirked as he started moving harder and faster against her. She glanced above his head at the red shimmering lights that lit up the room, hopefully somehow blessing them with all the luck in the world. Seconds later her orgasm ripped through her with such ferocity that she shouted out his name as she trembled against him.
He paused as he released her hands and she wrapped them round his neck, gathering him as close as she could. But as the feelings in her subsided and she felt her body go soft and pliant, it seemed that Gabe was far from finished.
Gabe woke and stared up at the sky above them as the first hints of a candyfloss sunrise started to appear. Pip was lying fast asleep sprawled out on his chest. Though he wasn’t surprised she was sleeping, they had made love for hours the night before. They’d stop and kiss and talk for a while, but he found he just couldn’t lie in bed with her naked and not make love to her until she screamed out his name again. He was never going to get enough of her. Sex had never been like that before. How could he ever think that he could fill the void she had left with those other women when nothing would ever feel as good or as right as being with Pip?
They would have to get up soon. He had promised Wren he would have breakfast with her and there was still a lot to be done to prepare for the guests’ arrival the next day. His parents were arriving too, but locked in the warmth of Pip’s embrace he could forget, just for a moment, that there were all these stresses to worry about.
He breathed her in and sighed.
He shifted out of her arms and she moaned slightly as he got out of bed and then re-covered her with a blanket. He used the bathroom and then came back out to the bedroom. She was lying face down with her bare shoulders showing and as he climbed back into bed with her, she opened one eye to look at him.
He stroked her hair. ‘Did you have any more nightmares last night?’
She shook her head. ‘You really must be my cure. Though there wasn’t much time for sleeping. It’s not time to get up yet, surely?’
‘We’ve probably got half an hour before we need to get ready.’
‘A half hour more sleep sounds lovely,’ she mumbled, sleepily, closing her eyes again.
‘Who said anything about sleeping?’ Gabe said as he moved on top of her, sweeping her hair off her shoulders and kissing the very top of her spine.
‘Gabe, I can’t move, I don’t have it in me to do it again,’ Pip said, though when she opened one eye to look at him over her shoulder, he could see she was far from sleepy any more.
‘Lucky for you, I have enough stamina for both of us. You just have to lie there, angel, and I’ll take care of everything.’
He grabbed the last condom and then trailed kisses down her spine, nudging her legs open as he knelt between them. He slid his fingers between her legs and let out a breath of need when he felt how ready she was for him. He lifted her hips slightly and slid inside her in one swift movement. She felt so good, so hot, and she fitted him perfectly. She let out a moan that was urgent and animalistic and it turned him on so much.
He leaned over her, his arms either side of her head, caging her in his embrace as he kissed her spine again. He thrust into her again and she writhed under him, very quickly falling into a rhythm as they moved against each other in perfect sync. He was surprised though when he could feel her body quickening, getting closer to her orgasm. She was so responsive and it took so little time to send her over the edge. He had never been with a woman who had multiple orgasms during sex, but Pip seemed to be the expert, and every time she looked shocked, like she couldn’t believe it was happening again, that her body was capable of it. For Gabe, he saw it as a challenge; he liked to see how many times he could make her come before he gave in to his own release.
As her body tightened around his and she moaned and clawed at the pillow, he reached up and took her hands in his, holding her to the bed as she screamed and shook beneath him. No sooner had her body stopped trembling, he pulled out and rolled her onto her back before sliding back into her again. She looped her arms round his neck and looked at him in shock as he continued to move against her. He kissed her softly and smiled against her lips as he felt her building again. He pulled back to stare into those beautiful golden, vulnerable eyes and knew he was falling in love with her all over again.
Pip stared up at the empty tree. Hanging just above where the star would be was a gigantic spider. This thing was practically a tarantula, with thick black hairy legs. She swore she could actually see its eight eyes staring at her. She hated spiders.
After breakfast with Wren and feeding the reindeer – with thankfully no sexual antics from Rudolph this time – she had spent the morning decorating the houses in the village. Everything had gone smoothly until she had to face this monster. She couldn’t kill spiders, they grossed her out too much, and she certainly couldn’t pick them up. But she couldn’t decorate the tree with it hanging over her either.
She climbed the three stairs up the stepladder and reached up towards the monster, swiping just above it with a piece of paper to try to catch the web. The spider flinched and she leapt back a bit, but still he hung there as if he was floating in the air. She swiped again and the spider suddenly fell from its web, slithered down the piece of paper towards her and straight down the sleeve of her top.
Pip screamed and yanked her top off, throwing it across the room and straight into Luke’s face as he came through the door holding what looked like lunch. She yelped at him seeing her in just a bra, tried to cover herself, and as the stepladder wobbled precariously she toppled backwards into the tree, hitting the branches and feeling the stab of the tiny needles against her bare skin as she fell to the floor.
‘Christ, Pip, are you OK?’ Luke said, rushing over to help her.
He grabbed her hand and retrieved her from the tree, but one of the branches caught on her bra strap and as she was pulled up, her bra was yanked up too. She grabbed her bra just in time to stop it from coming off and Luke, realising what had happened, immediately dropped her, slamming a hand over his eyes.
She yelped as she hit the floor again.
‘Sorry.’
He quickly handed her back her T-shirt which he was still holding in the other hand and when she struggled to put it back on from her upended position inside the tree, the bloody tarantula climbed out of the head hole towards her.
Pip squealed and threw the T-shirt out of the tree.
Luke chanced a glance through his fingers. ‘What happened?’
‘Don’t look.’
Luke clamped his hand over his eyes again and as Pip untangled herself from the branches she could distinctly hear him chuckling.
‘It’s not funny,’ Pip said, trying to stand up.
Luke must have known she was struggling, because he offered out his free hand and when she took it, he pulled her out. ‘It really is. I only came in here to see if you wanted a sandwich, I didn’t expect to get a strip show.’
Pip felt the laugh bubble from her throat too.
She marched over to her T-shirt and, seeing the tarantula scuttle underneath a chest of drawers, she picked her top up and pulled it on.
‘OK, you can look now,’ Pip said and smiled when Luke was still laughing. He didn’t laugh or smile very often and it made her feel good that she had helped to ease some of his pain, albeit temporarily. He tossed her a sandwich and went to sit down on the sofa. She sat down opposite him.
‘You’re the second person I’ve rescued from a tree today. Well, I say person, it was Blaze. Stupid puppy escaped again and got himself wedged in a tree, I have no idea how, but his howls and yelps made him pretty easy to find.’
‘He’s a handful then?’ Pip said, unwrapping her sandwich.
‘Blaze is certainly a character. I love him, but he’s completely useless for what I got him for. We bought them to pull sleds for the tourists; dog sledding is hugely popular and I’m going to train them in the summer to do it, but Blaze has no discipline at all. I might as well send him back to the breeder but Wren would kill me if I did, she absolutely adores him.’
‘Aw, poor Blaze, he just needs a little love.’
‘Believe me, he has that in bucket loads. At the moment, me spoiling him with love is not working and he’s corrupting the other puppies too. I can teach him to sit, stay and come when called, but beyond the basics he’s useless. You can have him if you want.’
Pip stopped chewing. A puppy would require commitment and stability. She couldn’t take responsibility for a puppy and then leave it in a few months’ time. She had always just been responsible for herself, but suddenly the thought of looking after someone or something else appealed. If she stayed she’d have Wren to look after too and although that was an even bigger responsibility than a puppy that didn’t scare her off, either. She wanted the family that she’d never had and the bigger the better – puppies, cats, maybe even children of her own one day – and she wanted that with Gabe.
She glanced over at Luke who was watching her with a slight smile, clearly knowing what she was thinking. That was a big statement from him. Offering her a puppy when he knew she couldn’t take Blaze with her was almost equivalent to asking her to stay, which was a bit of a U-turn from the day before.
Luke shrugged. ‘Think about it.’
‘I will.’
Pip stretched as she looked at the finished tree in the final house that she’d decorated. It had taken her all day to do the last three houses but now it was done. Although Gabe had helped with the outside of the houses in the morning, he’d disappeared back to the hotel before lunch and she hadn’t seen him since.
She had seen the red plane arrive on the island several times throughout the day, bringing with it all the staff and probably Gabe’s parents too. She knew she would have to face them at some point, but she wasn’t looking forward to the conversation that she knew she would have to have with them. They had been under no obligation to take her in when she was seventeen years old, they had every right to turn down the five thousand pounds that her dad had offered them, but she still couldn’t help feeling hurt over the rejection. She needed to know whether it was true and, if it was, the reason why. In hindsight, and with the maturity of age, Pip could understand that the lack of space and money could have been an issue, but she still couldn’t help feeling let down as they were always more of a family to her than her own family had been. In truth, part of the reason she had run away was not just Gabe’s rejection but the rejection from his parents too.
She quickly tidied up any of the debris left over from decorating and left the box by the door to be collected by the maintenance team later. She stepped outside into the cold. It was just starting to get dark and it was clear that the men working on the houses had finished and packed away some time before. But as with the previous night, Luke was waiting for her on the snowmobile.
‘Thanks for waiting,’ Pip said as she approached.
Luke shrugged. ‘Are all the houses finished now?’
‘Yes, that’s the last one. Hopefully we won’t need them, but if the power goes out again then we have a back-up plan.’
‘It’s good of you to help.’
Pip climbed on the snowmobile behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest. ‘I want to help Gabe, he’s worked so hard for this, you all have. I want it to be a success. If things work out between me and Gabe, then I’ll be staying here. I’m not sure what skills I have to offer, but I want to contribute.’
‘Do you think it will work out between you? It’s no secret that you spent the night together last night.’
‘We’ve spent every night together since I’ve arrived here, last night was no different.’ Apart from the hours of incredible, mind-blowing sex, but she wasn’t going to tell Luke that.
Luke was silent for a moment. ‘The boy is falling in love with you, anybody can see that. Just be careful with him.’
‘I will. I don’t want to hurt him, that’s the last thing I want.’
Luke nodded as he pulled into the drive. There was a flurry of activity around the hotel and lodges. Pip had got used to the place being quiet and empty, but Gabe had said there were nearly fifty staff returning that day and it seemed they all suddenly had jobs to do.
‘Dad and Lizzie are here, I know they’re keen to see you,’ Luke said, interrupting her thoughts.
Pip didn’t know what to say. It was the weirdest feeling of being so desperate to see them again after all this time and dreading seeing them too.
Luke seemed to sense this. ‘They loved you, Pip, don’t ever think otherwise.’
They stopped outside Gabe’s lodge and Pip climbed off.
‘We’re having a big family dinner later, I suspect I’ll see you then,’ Luke said.
‘I’m not family. I doubt they will want me there.’
‘You are family, you always have been.’
Luke roared off into the darkness before Pip could answer. She turned and walked up the stairs into Gabe’s lodge. If she was going to dinner with the Whitakers later she needed to speak to Gabe’s parents before then.
She pushed open the door and before she had even stepped one foot inside, Wren launched herself at her from across the room, throwing her arms around Pip and squealing with delight that she was home. Pip kneeled down and hugged Wren to her. Wren stroked Pip’s hair, soothingly, almost as if she knew that Pip was worried. Pip had never really thought about having children before – having children meant trusting someone enough to be in a serious relationship and she had vowed many years ago that that was never going to happen. But with Wren’s tiny warm body wrapped in her arms, right then Pip could think of nothing better than being a part of this little girl’s life, being there for her and watching her grow up.
‘It’s four days until Christmas, Pip. I’m so excited. Daddy says I might burst with excitement.’
‘We don’t want that, there would be bits of you everywhere.’
Wren giggled.
Gabe wandered in from the kitchen, smiling broadly. He had a tea towel thrown over his shoulder and as Wren let her go and went back to playing with Winston, and Gabe came over to greet her, she smiled at the idyllic image of domestic bliss that Gabe and Wren presented.
Without any hesitation, Gabe took her face in his hands and kissed her. Pip jumped a little that he would display such affection in front of Wren, but because Gabe didn’t seem bothered by it Pip closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss. Wren let out a little giggle at seeing them together, but after a second she carried on playing with Winston as if her daddy kissing Pip was completely the norm.
‘Well, that’s a lovely welcome,’ Pip said, smiling up at him when he eventually pulled back. ‘I certainly didn’t expect that.’
‘I missed you, we both did. Wren has been asking when you were coming home.’
‘Well, I’m home now and I’m yours all evening, Wren.’ She looked back at Gabe. ‘I know you’re going to dinner tonight with your family. I can look after Wren if you want me to.’
Gabe looked confused. ‘But you’re coming to dinner too, we all are. Mum and Dad are dying to see you again.’
‘It doesn’t seem right, Gabe. I’m not part of your family. I don’t want to be in the way.’
‘Of course you’re part of the family. It wouldn’t be right if you weren’t there.’
He looked down at her, trying to understand what she was worried about. His face cleared a little. ‘I’m just making some hot chocolate for Wren in the kitchen. Why don’t you come through and talk to me about your day and Wren can play in here with Winston.’
Pip nodded and Gabe took her hand and led her through to the kitchen. ‘What’s wrong? Do you not want to have dinner with them tonight?’
‘I need to talk to them before I sit down to dinner with them like one big happy family. It’ll be awkward otherwise.’
‘Then let’s go talk to them. They’re staying in your old lodge. We can go now. We still have a few hours until dinner.’
‘I think I need to do this by myself.’
Gabe nodded. ‘OK, if you’re sure.’
‘I’ll go now.’
Gabe kissed her on the cheek. ‘They adore you Pip, you have nothing to worry about.’
Pip smiled and walked back out through the lounge.
‘Are you leaving already?’ Wren asked, sadly, as she looked up from playing with Winston.
‘I’m just going over to see your grandparents, I won’t be long.’
‘Can I come?’
Gabe came in with a mug of steaming hot chocolate. ‘I just made you this. Do you not want it now?’
‘Did you make it with cream and marshmallows, Daddy?’
‘Of course I did. You can see Nanny and Pops again later at dinner. You need to have a bath first.’
‘OK, can Winston have a bath too?’
‘Maybe not tonight, but we can bath him another day.’
While Wren was distracted by the hot chocolate and the prospect of bathing Winston, Pip slipped out and crunched across the snow to the lodge where Gabe’s parents were staying.
She stood outside the door for a few moments before plucking up the courage to knock on the door. She could hear Lizzie and David laughing and talking inside and her heart jolted with a recognition and an ache for them that she didn’t even know she had.
A second later the door was flung open and she stared into the familiar eyes of Gabe’s mum. They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Lizzie threw her arms around Pip and held her tight.
‘Oh my darling, we have missed you so much. Come in out of the cold and let me have a look at you.’
Before Pip could protest, Lizzie had dragged her into the lounge and closed the door behind her. David was standing by the fire and his face split into a huge smile when he saw her.
‘Pip, it’s so good to see you,’ David said, walking towards her and grabbing her into a big hug.
Pip felt a lump of emotion lodge in her throat at the warm welcome from both of them. Where Neve and Luke had both been guarded, protective and somewhat hostile towards her at first, Lizzie and David welcomed her with open arms.
David released her and held Pip at arm’s length. ‘How have you been?’
‘You grew up to be so beautiful,’ Lizzie said. ‘It’s no wonder Gabe is falling in love with you all over again. God, I can’t believe you’re here after all this time. Broke my heart when you left, I felt like I had lost one of my own children. Gabe told us what happened, that you were in the car with your dad when it crashed. Why didn’t you come to us?’
Pip found her voice. ‘If Gabe told you what happened, then you’ll know that I did come to you and saw him in the barn with Jenny Maguire.’
‘Yes, he did say that’s what you thought but…’
‘Did he also tell you what my dad said to me on the day of the accident?’
Lizzy looked confused and David shook his head.
‘Dad was driving me to the train station when the accident happened; he didn’t want me to live with him any more. He had threatened to kick me out many times before but he’d never actually done it. This time he was serious. I said that if he didn’t want me, I’d live with you guys instead. Just before he crashed the car, he told me that he had offered you five thousand pounds for me to move in with you and you told him that you didn’t want it.’ Pip swallowed. ‘Or me.’
Lizzie paled and looked aghast and Pip could see immediately that what her dad had told her had been the truth.
‘Oh my darling, come and sit down,’ Lizzie said and Pip followed them to the sofa. Lizzie sat down next to her, taking Pip’s hand.
‘Your dad did come and see us and he did offer us five thousand pounds to take you in the day before he died. And it’s true that we turned him down, but it’s not for the reasons that you think. We had no idea that your dad had been threatening to kick you out before then. I turned him down because I thought you would be heartbroken to find out that your dad didn’t want you any more. That kind of rejection was the very last thing you needed. We knew you carried the fear of being rejected with you after being abandoned as a baby and we feared this would only make things worse for you. We ended up having a massive row with him. I told him that he needed to face up to his responsibilities as a parent and that we understood his grief for your mum but the time had come for him to be the dad your mum would have wanted him to be. He didn’t want to hear it and he stormed out,’ Lizzie said.
Lizzie looked over to David and he picked up the story. ‘We felt so guilty afterwards. We knew that living with your dad had always been hard for you and here was a way out. We loved you and it would never have been any hardship for you to come and live with us. We talked about it for hours after he left, and when Gabe went out to meet you that night we asked him to get you to come round for dinner the following night so we could discuss what you wanted to do. We were going to tell you that you would be very welcome to live with us and that we would love to have you, but we wanted it to be your choice rather than it being forced upon you. If I’d known that he was going to kick you out anyway I would have moved all your things into our house that very same day.’
Pip stared at the flames dancing in the fire. They had wanted her after all.
‘Please tell me that you didn’t move away because of that?’ Lizzie asked, her voice catching in her throat.
It would have been so easy to lie, to say that it didn’t have anything to do with her decision. But she wanted them to know that she didn’t run away from what she had with Gabe lightly. She wanted their approval for her and Gabe to be together again, she didn’t want them thinking that she was flighty and undependable.
‘It was part of the reason. I just didn’t think I had anything left for me there any more. I would never have hurt Gabe like that. I just wasn’t thinking straight after the accident and you have no idea how much I regret the way I handled it.’
Lizzie squeezed her hand.
‘It was no one’s fault, you can’t blame yourself,’ David said. ‘We certainly don’t.’
Silence fell on the room, the only sound the crackling of the logs in the fire, and she wondered if they were also thinking about how it could have been.
‘So you and Gabe are back together again?’ Lizzie asked, but there was no judgement from her, and certainly no anger as there had been from Neve and Luke.
‘We’re trying again. When we met it was clear there were all these suppressed feelings there that never went away, for both of us. It’s hard, we’re different people now, and we’re both cautious of getting hurt again but…things are going really well so far.’
Lizzie smiled hugely and Pip remembered what Gabe had said about Lizzie having them married off before Christmas.
‘There’s Wren to think of as well now. It’s a big responsibility to raise a child who isn’t yours,’ David warned.
‘David!’ Lizzie said. ‘We’re not talking about Pip raising Wren as her daughter. Gabe and Pip have only been back together again for a few days. Let them have some fun first before we start walking them down the aisle.’
Pip smiled. ‘I adore Wren. And maybe I haven’t really thought about the consequences or responsibilities of raising a child yet or what it will mean if I do stay, but it hasn’t felt like a burden or an inconvenience to have her around. I love spending time with her, playing with her and talking to her. It will be hard, of course it will be. I’ve never had any experience of childcare before, but it’s not something I’m afraid of.’
‘Well, we can have Wren for a sleepover tonight, give you guys some time alone,’ Lizzie waggled her eyebrows, mischievously.
‘That’s not necessary. We can have time alone once Wren has gone to bed. I feel like the poor girl has been passed from pillar to post recently as we’ve been getting ready for the opening of the hotel. It would probably do her good to have some stability,’ Pip said.
David and Lizzie exchanged smiles.
‘Spoken like a true parent,’ Lizzie said, fondly. ‘But we insist. We haven’t seen her for two months, she’s growing up so fast. We would love to have her over and I’m sure she would love to come. We’ll ask her, see what she wants to do.’
‘OK. But I warn you now, if she tells you she normally sings all the Frozen songs before she goes to sleep, then she’s lying.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘Sounds like you’re learning from experience already.’