The more she thought about what he had said to her, and repeated their conversation over and over in her head, the more she knew in her heart that he had been right to walk away and end what they had.
Sean had let her go rather than prolong the agony of always expecting her to take a place in the long line of other priorities that came with his position in the company.
He had done a noble thing.
He had given her up so that she could find someone who was able to put her first.
She did deserve better than to feel that she was always going to take second place in his list of priorities.
She was worthy of having someone to be there when she needed them. Like today.
Her parents had always put work first before her. Not because they intended to hurt her; far from it. They loved what they did and had explained many times that they wanted to be happy so that she could share that happiness.
Shame that it had never made it any easier to accept.
Shame that she would have loved to have Sean with her today of all days. To share her excitement and sense of achievement. To share her joy with the man she had come to love. The man she still wanted to be with.
The first man that she wanted to be with.
This was all so new and bewildering. Oh, there had been plenty of teenage crushes before. And broken hearts galore. But the way she felt this morning was something very different.
It was if she had tasted something so wonderful that it was terrifying to think that she might never taste it again.
Dee raised her body back to a sitting position and peered glassy-eyed at the photograph of her smiling parents, and Lottie’s bizarre but no doubt totally delicious cake, and a small chuckle made her shoulders rise and fall.
Even in the daily mayhem that constituted her mad world, falling for one of heirs to the Beresford hotel dynasty was surely the craziest.
She picked up the fork, speared a small chunk of cake and closed her lips around it, savouring the different flavours. Letting her tongue and the sensitive taste buds that made her job possible do the work before chewing for a moment and swallowing it down.
‘Oh, you tried the cake. Brave woman. Go on. Hit me with it.’
Lottie marched into her bedroom with a tray, sat down on the bed and bared her teeth in fear of the honest review.
Dee raised her eyebrows and licked her lips. ‘You put ground black pepper in the cream to offset the rosewater. And I am tasting orange zest and a hint of cloves and cardamom in the tea-scented sponge.’
‘Absolutely. I knew that you would get it. So? Lady Grey or a green tea?’
Dee took the tray out of Lottie’s hands. ‘Green. But a special one. This is good. This is very good. Congratulations, Miss Rosemount. You have just succeeded in creating one of the toughest tea-matching challenges I have ever come across. Please accept this hand-crafted medal.’
‘This is not a medal. It’s an exhibitors badge for the tea festival.’
‘Well, you don’t think I would face the ravenous cake-eating hordes without you there to serve it and bask in the glory, did you? And, after all, we can’t have tea without the cake to go with it! Foolish girl.’
Then Dee’s smile faded and she reached out and took Lottie’s hand. ‘Can you come with me? Just for a couple of hours. Please? Gloria and the gang will look after the tea rooms. I just... I just need a pal by my side today. It turns out that being a tea magnate is not half as much fun when you don’t have someone to share the excitement with. And I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect that at all.’
* * *
Sean dug into his pocket, pulled out his mobile phone and dialled the number with shaking fingers.
He had been up most of the night, talking to Rob, who was fighting health inspectors in Chicago, and his father, who was fighting to stay awake after two hours of pacing back and forth going over the business plans for the hotel chain and where Sean was going in his career. And his life.
Please still be there.
Please answer.
Please don’t throw the phone out of the window when you see who is calling you. Please take this call.
The only voice in the world he wanted to hear whispered, ‘Hello?’
‘Dee. It’s Sean. I’m standing outside the tea rooms but I won’t come in unless you want me to. Please say yes.’
The fraction of a second before she replied seemed like an eternity. ‘Sean? What do you mean you are outside the tea rooms? I thought that you would be in Chicago by now.’
‘Long story, but I’d like to tell you about it in person instead of on the pavement in the dark at the crack of dawn.’
‘Okay. Yes, Lottie will let you in.’
It took Sean three seconds to give a very startled Lottie a quick wave, then bound up the stairs two at a time and stand puffing and panting outside Dee’s bedroom.
His hand stretched out towards the door handle. And then he snatched it back.
Eyes closed, he blew out a long, deep breath, his head suddenly dizzy with doubt as the blood surged in his veins.
What was he doing here? What if she said, thanks, but no thanks? This was crazy.
He loved this woman and he had been willing to let her go because he was afraid of changing his life? Mad.
For once he was going to risk their future happiness on a crazy decision to trust his heart instead of his head.
And what if she said yes? She could be committing herself to a life where he could be on the road or in a different hotel most of the year. Was that fair?
Yes. Because he was just as determined to show Dee that he was able to give her a fraction of the love she felt for him.
And he had to do it now. Or never. Perhaps that was why he felt so naked. Exposed.
Sean straightened his back and just prepared to knock, but at the very second he did so there was movement on the other side of the door, and the handle turned on its own and cracked open an inch, then wider...and Dee was standing there.
Her eyes locked onto his as she looked at him with the kind of intensity that seemed to knock the oxygen from his lungs.
Then those eyes smiled and he took in the full effect of that beautiful face. No camera in the world could have captured the look on Dee’s face at this moment.
He felt as though the air would explode with the electricity in the air between them.
‘Hi,’ she whispered. ‘Has something happened to bring you back? Are you okay?’ There was so much love and concern in her voice that any doubts Sean had about what he had to do next were wiped away.
Sean
