A Christmas Night to Remember(40)

‘Only in as much as you own me,’ he said softly. ‘It works both ways. You gave me your love and so that’s mine—as my love is yours. The difference between us is that I trust you. I trust you with everything I am and everything I have. But you’re not there yet, are you? There’s still a question mark hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles. True trust involves commitment, becoming vulnerable, Dee. It can make you feel exposed and frightened. Oh, yes, it can. Don’t look at me like that. Do you think you’re the only one who’s scared rigid at the enormity of what true love and trust involves? But it’s worth it. In the long run, it’s worth it.’

She shook her head, unaware of the tears coursing down her face until he stepped forward and stroked the moisture away with his fingers. ‘It’s going to be okay,’ he reassured her very quietly, his eyes dark and steady. ‘You’re a good person and so am I. In fact I’m a great person. We’re destined to be together.’

It was so silly that she had to smile, as he’d meant her to. ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ she whispered, in such a low voice he could barely hear her, ‘but better that now than later. This—us—it’s impossible, Zeke.’

He drew her over to the sofa, pushing her down and handing her a coffee made from the complementary tray left in the room. ‘This is your night.’ He put a biscuit in the saucer of her cup. ‘A night that laughs at the impossible. Only believe.’

That was just it. She couldn’t. Melody put the cup to her lips, not even noticing the milk was the long-life sort that she hated. She couldn’t believe any more.





CHAPTER NINE





THEY sipped their coffee in silence, eating the biscuits automatically. Melody didn’t want to talk and start the process of discussion again. There was nothing more to be said. She was so tired—not the physical, bone-weary kind she’d experienced earlier, but tired in her spirit. Arguments and counter-arguments—she had been going over them in her head for weeks alone in her hospital bed. There was nothing new Zeke could say that she hadn’t already considered. She was all reasoned out.

‘Let’s go and build a snowman.’

If Zeke had said Let’s take a trip to the moon tonight, Melody couldn’t have stared at him with more amazement. ‘What?’

‘A snowman.’ He pointed to the window. ‘The hotel has a tiny courtyard that the restaurant looks out on, with a tree and some bushes in it. We could build a snowman.’ He grinned at her. ‘Let’s live dangerously. What do you say?’

‘We couldn’t.’ She shook her head. ‘Everyone’s asleep. It’s probably locked. They wouldn’t allow us to do that.’

‘There’ll be someone on Reception.’ He pulled her to her feet. ‘I fancy being out in the fresh air for a while.’

So did she. Months of being shut in the antiseptic confines of the hospital had been stifling. ‘They’ll think we’re mad.’

‘They’re entitled to their opinion.’ He bent his head and kissed her once, hard. ‘Get dressed in warm clothes. Unless…’ he paused as something occurred to him ‘…you’re too tired?’

He meant unless her legs were paining her, Melody thought. And they were, a little, but not half so much as they had in the hospital, when she’d had nothing to think about but how she felt. A feeling of recklessness took hold. ‘No, I’m not tired.’

‘Come on then. We’ll build our very own Frosty for posterity.’

‘I hate to remind you, but it’ll melt within days.’

‘Ah, but the memory won’t,’ he said, as they left the sitting room for their respective bedrooms. ‘And I for one happen to believe that all snowmen come alive the moment they’re alone. He’ll make the most of his short sojourn here.’

‘You’re crazy,’ she said, laughing. This was all very un-Zeke-like. ‘Absolutely crazy. Do you know that?’

‘No, just grateful.’ His voice was suddenly serious. ‘A few months back they were telling me to prepare myself for the worst on that first night they got you into hospital. That kind of experience has a way of making you sort out what’s important in life and what’s not. You think everything is under control, that you have the future mapped out in nice neat compartments, and then you realise it can change in a moment of time. We’re so fragile, us human beings. We break easily.’