Chapter 4

Snake-like Behaviour

We spend the next few days wrapped up in each other, taking it slow, catching up, long walks during the day, cuddling up at night. It’s the time we never got when work started getting in the way, and it’s perfect.

It’s not until the day before I’m due to leave that our bubble bursts. I’ve been playing tug with Bear down by the lake, trying to keep him active, enticing him with his favourite rope toy, when I happen to look towards the tent.

James had made his excuses ten or so minutes ago, headed off to get us drinks. Or so he said. Currently, though, he’s nearly out of sight behind a tree, and he’s hugging a woman. A small, blonde woman, her laugh a tinkle as it carries over to where I stand. It’s the way she strokes his arm and the smile she gives him as she leaves that sets my senses tingling. She’s not some random hiker or a fellow camper, she knows him, and she knows him well.

“Who was that?” I ask as he rejoins me moments later.

“Huh? Who?”

He averts his gaze, watches Bear paddle in the shallows, and my mind spins out of control.

“The blonde. The one you were just hugging.”

He doesn’t answer, instead he takes my hand and pulls me close. This isn’t like him, he’s being evasive, acting strange as he runs a hand over his scruff then up to the back of his neck. It’s almost like there’s something he’s not telling me.

Fuck. He’s got a girlfriend. The snake. And then this week happened, and we reconnected and now … now what? He’s dumped her? Because of me? Or worse, sent her away with every intention of going home to her after having his fun with me. No, he wouldn’t. If there was someone else, he’d never have let this happen. That’s not who he is. But then, he’s a whole new James. No, I won’t let myself believe that, I know him, he wouldn’t. He’s not that guy.

But when I ask again and there’s still no answer, when my heart starts to ache, I pull away. “If you’re with someone—”

“Fuck, no, Kitty Kat. Shit. Okay, okay,” he starts, then turns in a circle before coming back to me. “That was Hazel, she’s my business partner going into this adventure camp idea. I met her in Australia, she was moving to the UK, and over a few days, we got to know each other, talked about what we wanted from our lives, and everything just fell into place.”

“Did you and her…”

He shakes his head. “I’ll be honest, there was one drunken kiss the night we met. A night I sat and told her all about the woman that broke my heart, how it had been over a year, and that I still wasn’t over her. Hazel offered to make me feel better, kissed me, and I kissed her back, the first woman since you left. But neither of us felt anything. She just wasn’t you. The first thing she said after we kissed was ‘You were thinking about Katie, weren’t you?’ and I couldn’t deny it.”

I know he’s telling the truth, his face is easy to read. It always was.

“Has there been anyone for you?”

I can’t help but laugh. If he only knew. “No. Not one, not even a drunken kiss.”

“I don’t get it, you’re you, beautiful, intelligent, kind, why hasn’t someone come and swept you off your feet? I always presumed they would have, that you’d have moved on by the time we next saw each other.”

“There was never going to be anyone after you. I could have gone the rest of my life and no-one would have come close, so what would have been the point?”

He kisses me then, a slow, reverent kiss, but I pull away.

“What’s wrong?”

“What was Hazel doing here?”

He grins, takes my hand, a blush creeping up his face.

“She brought me something I’d locked in the safe at work, something valuable, something I bought a couple of years ago.”

I’m confused, wonder what could have been so important that she trekked all the way out here from London just to bring him something.

“I knew I had to get it out here the moment fate threw you in my path again. When you remembered my surf tutor dreams.”

“That was days ago.”

“Do you know how long it took me to find somewhere out here to get a signal so I could call her?” he laughs.

“It’s pretty awful for reception, I’ve not been able to check in with anyone.”

“Exactly, so this took a bit of arranging. I had to keep going back to the one place I had a bar of signal. But anyway, that conversation, when I asked you if you remembered about me wanting to teach surfing, you said ‘I do’ and there was this moment when I just blanked after that. I’d always imagined hearing you say those words to me as we stood opposite each other in a church, and so…”

My hands fly to my mouth as he drops to one knee and I realise what the item he wanted from the safe was.

“We were good together then, we’re good together now, I messed up, allowed work to take over, and even if I had the best intentions at heart, I should have always considered the thing that was most important first. You. So, Katherine Penelope Kitson, will you marry me?”

I spent days, weeks, months even, just dreaming of the day he’d ask this very question. Pretty much from the moment we met I could see myself walking down the aisle towards him, it was always him. What I never envisioned was him proposing in the middle of the wilderness. It just wasn’t a part of our lives, this natural setting. The closest we ever got was a walk along the canal with Bear. A proposal back then would have been some exclusive restaurant, somewhere fancy. But we never needed that. And we don’t now. This is actually perfect. Just me and him. And Bear, of course, who is sitting quietly, watching us, observing as always. It’s intimate, perfect, our little family.

Family.

“You’re leaving me hanging here, Kitty Kat.”

He wants to marry me? Over two years after we broke up and he still wants me? Despite everything?

Except, he doesn’t know everything.

He doesn’t know everything.

And the time for getting reacquainted is over, going slowly is over. I have to tell him.

The words are stuck in my throat. Every fibre of my being is screaming yes, that we belong together, were destined from the second our eyes met. But one part of me, a tiny voice, it’s asking a question, one I can’t quiet, that’s louder than all the rest. Louder in its quietness somehow.

But what will he say when he finds out?