stood rooted to the ground as the implications of it all hit him.
He’d lost her.
Then he gave himself a mental shaking.
He could find her again.
It would take at least ten hours for her to drive to Melbourne. More if she took the coastal road. It wasn’t worth pursuing her by car.
In the morning he’d drive to Sydney, then catch a plane to Melbourne.
He’d seek her out.
And hope like hell that she’d listen to what he had to say.
* * *
Sandy had abandoned her plan to mosey down the coastal road to Melbourne. Instead she cut across the Clyde Mountain and drove to Canberra, where she could connect to the more straightforward route of the Hume Highway.
She didn’t trust herself to drive safely in the dark after the emotional ups and downs of the day. A motel stop in Canberra, then a full day’s driving on Thursday would get her to Melbourne in time to check in to her favourite hotel and be ready to wow the candle people on Friday morning.
She would need to seriously psyche herself up to sound enthusiastic about a retail mall candle shop when she’d fallen in love with a quaint bookshop on a beautiful harbour.
Her hands gripped tight on the steering wheel.
Who was she kidding?
It was her misery at leaving Ben that she’d have to overcome if she was going to impress the franchise owners.
She’d cried all the way from Dolphin Bay. Likely she’d cry all the way from Canberra to Melbourne. Surely she would have run out of tears by the time she faced the interview panel?
She pulled into the motel.
Ben would have read her note by now. Maybe it had been cowardly to leave it. But she could not have endured facing him again, knowing she couldn’t have him.
No regrets. No regrets. No regrets.
Ben was her once-in-a-lifetime love. But love couldn’t thrive in a state of inertia.
She’d got over Ben before. She’d get over him again.
Soon her sojourn in Dolphin Bay would fade into the realm of happy memories. She had to keep on telling herself that.
And pray she’d begin to believe it.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
BEN REMEMBERED SANDY telling him about her favourite hotel in the inner-city Southbank district of Melbourne—all marble, chandeliers and antiques. He’d teased her that it sounded too girly for words. She’d countered that she liked it so much better than his preferred stark shades of grey.
He’d taken a punt that that was where she would be staying. A call to Reception had confirmed it. He walked from his ultra-contemporary hotel at the other end of the promenade that ran along the banks of the Yarra River. He’d wait all day at her hotel to see her if he had to.
It was a grey, rainy morning in Melbourne, mitigated by the brilliant colours of a myriad umbrellas. Ben watched a hapless duck struggling to swim across the wide, fast-flowing brown waters of the Yarra.
Was his mission doomed to such a struggle?
He found the hotel and settled in one of the comfortable velvet chairs in the reception area. He didn’t have to wait for long. He sensed Sandy was there before he glanced up.
He was shocked at how different she looked. She wore a sleek black suit with a tight skirt that finished above her knees and high-heeled black shoes. A laptop in a designer bag was slung across her shoulder. Her hair was sleek, her mouth glossy with red lipstick.
She looked sexy as hell and every inch the successful businesswoman.
Sandy the city girl.
It jolted him to realise how much he’d be asking her to give up. Now she was back in her own world would she want to settle for running a small-town bookshop in Dolphin Bay?
She must have felt his gaze on her, and stopped mid-stride as he rose from the chair. He was gratified that her first reaction was a joyous smile. But then she schooled her face into something more neutral.
For a moment that seemed to stretch out for ever they stood facing each other in the elegant surrounds of the hotel. He had to get it right this time. There wouldn’t be another chance.
* * *
Sandy’s breath caught.
Ben.
Unbelievably handsome and boldly confident in a superbly cut charcoal-grey suit. Her surf god in the city. She had trouble finding her voice.
‘What are you doing here?’ she finally managed to choke out.
He stepped closer. ‘I’ve come to tell you how much I love you. How I always loved the memory of you.’
Ben. This troubled, scarred man she adored. He had come all the way to Melbourne to tell her he loved her, smack in the middle of a hotel lobby.
She kept her voice low. ‘I love you too. But it doesn’t change the reasons why I left Dolphin Bay.’
‘You gave me the kick in the butt I needed. I’m done with living with past scars. I want a future. With you.’
He looked around. Became aware they were attracting discreet interest.
‘Can we talk?’
‘My room,’ she said.
They had the elevator to themselves and she ached to kiss him, to hold him. That would only complicate things, but for the first time she allowed herself a glimmer of hope for a future with Ben.
* * *
Ben was grateful for the privacy of Sandy’s hotel room. He took both her hands in his. Pulled her close. Looked deep into her eyes. ‘More than anything I want a life with you.’
‘Me too, Ben.’
‘That life would be empty without a child. Our child.’
He watched her face as the emotions flashed over it. She looked more troubled than triumphant.
‘Oh, Ben, you don’t have to say that. I don’t want you to force yourself to do something so important as having children because you think it’s what I want. That...that won’t work.’
The fear he’d been living with for five years had been conquered by her brave action in walking away from him.
‘It’s for your sake, yes. But it’s also for my own.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I want to be a dad again some day.’
The loss
