AUBREY FELT AS if she was in a Daisy and Jessica sandwich, the girls hugged her so hard.
“Don’t squish the baby,” she managed between her smushed lips.
The girls both sprang away as if they’d been electrified.
“Kidding. Peanut is about the size of a raspberry right now.”
Thinking about Peanut made her think of Sean. Which meant she was thinking about him a thousand times a day. The fact that he was no longer in her days. Or her nights. The wondering if he’d found her envelope. If it had sparked any kind of revelation. Or even if he was simply somewhere in the world thinking about her too.
She shook it off. She was with her best friends in the world. And if that didn’t go some ways to cheering her up, nothing would. “Viv—in a bid to be actual godmother not merely fairy godmother—had me checked out by the best and brightest and so far so good.”
Jessica slid a hand around her arm and leant her head on her shoulder. “Viv’s not going to be the only godmother, right?”
“Of course not. Daisy too.”
Jessica laughingly slapped her on the arm. Then swiped away a tear. “Sorry. It’s all a little emotional. This has just been the best summer of my life. And finishing it up by seeing you guys…”
They fell into another group hug, only this time Jessica was in the middle.
To think they’d managed to build such a strong friendship from the other side of the world. International friendship. Now international parenting. It was a whole new world out there!
“Now what’s this about Viv? And some new man in her life? So much to discuss,” said Daisy, checking the time on her phone, “none of which you are allowed to even hint at without me. But I really have to head backstage.”
Daisy dashed away.
While Aubrey took her chance to hitch the deep neckline of her fabulous black, bare-shouldered, all-in-one jumpsuit. It looked as if she were wearing a push-up bra when really she wore none at all. Ah, pregnancy. On that score, she snaffled a cracker from her backpack.
“Aubs?” said Jessica, a funny note in her voice.
Aubrey wiped cracker crumbs from her lips. “Mmm?”
“That dashing man over there, the one looking at you like he wants to kiss you and throttle you at the same time, is that who I think it is?”
Aubrey glanced over her shoulder. Took her half a second to spot him amidst the seething crowd. That dark swishy hair, the cool mien, those ridiculous blue eyes.
“Malone,” she said on a sigh. He was so beautiful he practically glowed.
“I don’t know about glowing,” said Jessica, “but he is very handsome.”
“Did I say that out loud?”
“Sure did. I’ll leave you to it, shall I? Now where is my silver fox?”
Jessica faded into the crowd, leaving Aubrey feeling as if her feet were nailed to the ground.
Sean. Sean was here. Not holed up in his cave, licking his wounds. But out in the world. At a club, no less. And he was walking her way. Looking dark and broody and focussed and fine.
Once he was near enough to touch, he said, “Trusedale.”
Aubrey went with, “Hello, Sean.”
And, oh, the way his deep dark eyes lit up when she said his name.
Had it always been that easy? Yes, she thought, it really had. Which was why she’d struggled to go there. For all her determination to experience the heck out of life, Sean Malone had always been more than she knew what to do with.
Aubrey felt bumps from the left, and the right. But only vaguely. Every cell was stretching towards the man before her. There was more than shadow bristling his hard jaw. Smudges beneath his perfect blue eyes. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.
Only one reason she could think of why he looked so messed up.
He missed her.
She took a moment, a Sean moment, to let that settle. To absorb it. And to let herself believe it. A sense of free fall had her catching her breath, before she trusted it, trusted herself, and let her heart flutter and flap and glide. And soar. Till it angled its way back to him.
“Fancy meeting you here,” she said.
His gaze, shadowed in the low light, played over her face. Drinking her in as if he’d stumbled out of the desert and she were a pina colada. Or, you know, a glass of water. Either or.
“I’m a fan of the band, you know,” he said.
Aubrey baulked. For a fraction of a second.
“Mocking,” he said, his face slowly creasing into a grin. All flashing white teeth and eye crinkles and her heart filled so fast it nearly burst.
Only her heart didn’t burst. It held strong. And true. Ready to take him on. For good. If he’d stop fighting it and let her.
The music changed, the dance floor filling fast. Aubrey was bumped again, and this time she used it as an excuse to step closer, her hand landing on Sean’s chest. His arm slid around her waist, pulling her close. And they began to sway.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“First time for everything.” Really? With the jokes? Not now, you goof!
Sean smiled down at her, his gaze hot. Hungry. “I’ve been considering your request.”
“My request.”
“To love you.”
“Oh,” she said on an outshot of breath.
That level of assertiveness was usually her move. It was quite the thing being on the receiving end.
Then his knee slid between hers as he turned her. And there it stayed. Till they were plastered up against one another. As close as two people could get with their clothes on.
“Here’s the thing,” he said, his voice clear. Calm. As if he’d come out the other end of a really big Sean moment. Ready.
While she trembled all over.
“When you made your request—for me to love you—”
“Yep. Got it.”
“I need you to understand that kind of thing has never been a part of my vocabulary. I grew up in a home that was the epitome of sang-froid. We learnt young to distil our emotion. Keep it locked down tight. Use that pressure as fuel to succeed. Even after we all learned how destructive bottling it all up could be, I remained good at it. It was all I knew.”
Someone walked past with glasses of beer overhead and Sean deftly moved Aubrey out of the way. Protecting. Always protecting. If she was lucky, he’d never stop.
Aubrey slid a hand into the back of Sean’s hair, the slippery strands scraping through her fingers. And his gaze came back to her. Those stunning Le Mans blue eyes that she loved so very much.
“Talk to me,” she said.
“So demanding,” he said, pressing against her, all hard heat and promise.
She might even have swooned. Just a little. But still managed to quip, “It’s part of my charm.”
“That it is. So, where was I?”
“Poetically tragic hot guy, bottled emotions.”
“Right,” he said, clicking his fingers. “Could have had that as a tattoo. Until I met you.”
His eyes found hers. His gaze tender. And steady. “Everything changed that day, Aubrey. Everything.”
“For the better, I hope.”
A smile. A dimple. A flutter in her heart.
“Better than better. My staff are happier. Walking down Via Alighieri is now like walking into a fair. Even Elwood is more spry. Though any time he hears my footsteps now only to find you’re not with me, he snuffles and goes back to sleep. My whole world is not what it was. My whole world,” he said once more, brushing a stray strand of hair from her cheek.
“Sean,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Ask me again, Aubrey,” he said, his voice deep, rough, intimate. “Ask me again to love you.”
The words felt so big, her throat so full. If she said it, her life would never be the same again.
Aubrey ran a hand over his collar, untucking it from where it was endearingly hooked over on itself. Then, her voice steady, she said, “Love me, Sean Malone.”
“Done.”
And then he kissed her. Right there in the middle of the dance floor. It was lush and hot and delicious. It was sweet and tender and full of longing.
She loved this man with her whole entire heart. Every bit of gristle. Every life-affirming pump.
It occurred to her, in the haze of his kiss, that she hadn’t told him so.
Aubrey pulled back so fast they stumbled. Sean righted the ship, which was his way.
“I love you, Sean. I love you. I’m in love with you and have been for such a long time. Possibly even for ever. And it has nothing to do with the peanut you put inside of me. Though I do love you for that too. Our feisty little miracle.”
Sean moved away, just enough to look down between them.
“Are you checking out my cleavage?”
“What?”
“Look,” she said, puffed out her chest. “They’re bigger already. One of the benefits of pregnancy. You’re welcome.”
His gaze, on her eyes, was indulgent. But heated. “I was preparing to say a private hello to the peanut.”
“Right. Proceed.”
Hand on her hip, Sean looked down once more and said, “Hello, Peanut. I love your mother. Just want you to know that right up front. I promise to protect her, and hear her, and lean on her, and never ask if she’s okay for as long as she’ll let me. I saw your picture the other day. And while you’re a funny-looking kid, I’m smitten with you already too.”
Aubrey laughed. And hiccupped as tears filled the back of her throat.
“You two,” he said, his voice dropping as he moved to look down her top, past her heart tattoo, past her scar to the new cleavage below, “I’ll talk to later.”
Then he pulled her back in. And they swayed. No words. Just love. Aubrey could not remember ever feeling this wonderful. As if her blood were pure champagne.
She looked up at him, because she couldn’t not. “You, Sean Malone, really are the gin to my tonic. Do you think maybe that is the tattoo meant for you?”
“I’m not getting a tattoo.”
“Come on! Was everything you just said for nought?”
“Not everything,” he said, laying a kiss on top of her head as they moved to the music. “For you, I am willing to try new things. Like barbecue.”
“Turns out I prefer pasta.”
“I can keep the workshop going. Promote Flora to project manager. Hire more cabinet makers. Then you and I can base ourselves in Sydney. I know how important your family is to you.”
Aubrey’s heart clutched. This man! “Or we could move to Melbourne. It doesn’t suck there. It would give you the chance to reconnect with your family.”
“I went home.”
“You what?”
“A couple of days ago. I caught up with my mum. And my dad. I took the commission.”
Aubrey hit him on the chest with a balled-up fist. “Oh, you good and wonderful man.”
He caught her fist in his hand. Kissed her on the small flower ring she’d bought on the Ponte Vecchio. Unwrapped the fingers. Held them as he placed them over his heart. His glorious beast of a heart.
“Thing is, though, I love Florence,” said Aubrey. “It might, in fact, be the most beautiful city on the entire planet. There are so many back streets I’ve yet to explore. Then there’s the fact that I still haven’t touched the David. Working up to that might take some planning. Might take some time. So I suggest we start there and see how we go.”
“Florence it is. What about—?”
“Do we have to decide all of this tonight?”
“No, but—”
Aubrey kissed him to stop him talking.
It was the only way.
Like a hazy hum in the back of her head, Aubrey heard the crowd go wild as Daisy and Jay and the rest of Dept 135 burst onto the stage.
But Aubrey and Sean kept swaying. Kissing. Planning. Dreaming.
Three hearts, beating in perfect sync.