The Package Deal: Nine Months to Change His Life / From Neighbours...to Newlyweds? / The Bonus Mum

No. She didn’t wish. All she wished was right here, right now. She closed her eyes and let herself savour Ben’s body. Life was all about now, she told herself. She refused to think further.

‘Mary?’

‘Mmm?’ Shut up, she was pleading beneath her breath. Don’t you know that if we wake up it’s over?

‘It’s over,’ he said, and she kept her eyes closed for one last millisecond, gathering her resources, such as they were.

She could do this.

‘We’ve survived,’ she said, and she thought, I will survive. And then she thought, How dramatic is that? Woman who’s just had a magnificent time out with a wounded warrior; celebrating survival? She felt like she should be celebrating much more.

She could put him in her book. Who was she kidding? He already was in her book.

And who was she kidding with her writing? Writing would give her an alternative career? That was fantasy.

Like now. But fantasy was over.

Ben was putting her gently away, kissing her with all the tenderness in the world but then setting her back, holding her shoulders so he could look into her eyes.

‘That was a very nice way to spend the storm,’ he said, and she managed a smile.

‘Diversional therapy? They taught us that at nursing school. It works beautifully.’

‘You never learned what we just did at nursing school.’

‘I... No.’

‘Mary, if there are consequences...’

‘There won’t be consequences.’ She said it with more confidence than she felt. It was the wrong time of the month, she should be okay, but...but...

But there were things she could do. She just had to be practical.

‘I’ll always be here for you,’ he said, and there was that in his voice that said he meant it. ‘No matter where you are in the world, if you ever need me...’

‘If ever I wash up on a beach...’

‘I’m not joking,’ he said, and touched her lips gently with his fingers. ‘I’m yours for life.’

He meant he had a lifelong debt, she thought. Yours for life? No and no and no. Already she could see him moving on.

‘We need a radio,’ he said.

‘There’s been no transmission since before I found you. I suspect the mainland transmission towers have gone.’

‘Phone?’ he said without much hope.

‘Same. But I turned mine off, conserving the battery so when it does come on again I can call.’

She saw his relief. ‘You normally get reception?’

‘From higher on the island, where the hut is.’ She hauled herself together, trying to ignore the feel of his hands on her shoulders, trying to ignore the part of her that was screaming that she didn’t want to leave this place.

She had to leave.

‘I’ll do a recce,’ she said. ‘Heinz and me. It’s time he got some exercise.’

‘We’ll do a recce.’

‘Yeah, Commando Sir,’ she said dryly. ‘Have you seen the size of your knee?’

‘It’s better.’

‘It’s straight. It’s not better. And there’s no proof you don’t have a broken bone. You want to be on the other side of the island and the bone shifts? What good would that do either of us?

‘I need to find out what’s happened to Jake,’ he said, and she knew his focus had gone out of this cave, back to the most important thing in the world.

His twin.

He’d moved on. She must, too.

She sat up and stared out into the bright morning light. The sky was clear, the wind had dropped to almost nothing, and she could see the turquoise blue of the bay. ‘The tide looks like it’s out,’ she said. ‘There’ll be a couple of hours when I can access most parts of the beach. What if you stay here and tend the fire, and Heinz and I will do a circumnavigation of the island. We’ll check and see what’s left of the hut but we’ll check the beach first.’

She very carefully didn’t look at his face. She stared out to sea as if she wasn’t thinking about anything at all except maybe finding the odd interesting shell. ‘It’d be good to see what the storm’s washed up,’ she said in a voice that said she was hardly interested.

He wasn’t fooled for a moment. ‘Mary...’

She dropped the pretence. ‘I know you’re worried. You shouldn’t be. He was in a harness. Those choppers don’t drop anyone.’

‘Thank you,’ he said. He was trying to believe her but he was also thinking of next worst-case scenarios. ‘Mary, there were others...’

‘I’ll be looking. I’m not Jake-specific. Any more commando heroes washed overboard, I’ll tug ’em home.’

‘Isn’t one enough?’

‘One’s more than enough,’ she said, and then, because she couldn’t help herself, she took his face between her hands and she kissed him. She kissed him strongly and surely, and he wasn’t to know that for her it seemed like a goodbye.

‘One’s more than enough,’ she said. ‘One’s given me strength that should keep me going for a long, long time.’

‘How long?’

‘I’d guess a few hours,’ she said, forcing herself to put the kiss aside as it was too hard to think about. ‘It normally takes two hours to walk the beach but with the debris it might take me four. Don’t expect me home for lunch.’

‘For better or worse but not for lunch?’

‘That’s right, dear,’ she said, and grinned. ‘I’ll take an apple and a water bottle. Meanwhile, you keep the home fires burning and have my slippers warmed and ready. Bye.’

* * *