‘Yes, Ash, I do.’
I press my forehead to hers, pull her body tight against me. ‘Do me a favour?’
‘What?’
‘Kiss me again so I know this isn’t a dream?’
‘I think we can go one better than a kiss...’
She rakes her fingers down my front, easing them beneath my sweater. Her fingertips over my bare skin make my stomach contract.
‘We have so many lost nights to catch up on.’
‘Coco...’
I can’t speak any more, can only claim her mouth with all the hunger, all the love, all the pent-up pain I can now let go of because she is here. And she loves me. Just as I do her.
She yanks my sweater over my head and I grip the hem of hers, but she presses her palms into my chest, stopping me from going further. I drag in a breath, my eyes burning into hers.
‘Tell me again,’ she says, her eyes bright with desire, her cheeks flushing pink.
‘I love you, Coco Lauren!’ I grip her by the waist and lift her onto the counter, her resultant laughter music to my deprived ears.
‘And if you let me...’ I step between her thighs, drawing her against me ‘... I will show you just how much every day and every night for the rest of our lives.’
I seal my vow with my lips upon hers and start to show her...one stroke, one lick, one kiss at a time...
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I LOOK DOWN at the leather-bound book clutched in my hands and smile. I know this is the right thing to do now. I know I need Granny to understand my mother—her good heart and her love for my father. I also need her to know that I’ve found my happiness too. That I am in love and loved in return.
I turn to look up at Ash beside me.
‘You okay?’ he asks, his arm around my waist giving me a gentle squeeze.
‘Yes. It’s the right thing to do.’ I’ve already marked out some pages in the diary—the ones that shine with my mother’s love. ‘Will you wait for me downstairs?’
‘Sure.’
He presses a kiss to my brow and I breathe in his scent, his love, his support.
‘Thank you.’
And then I turn to face Granny’s bedroom door and give it a gentle knock.
‘Come in,’ she calls from the other side, her voice still perfectly controlled, even though I know each day becomes more and more of a struggle for her.
I blink away the tears that form and step out of Ash’s embrace to open the door and walk inside.
She’s propped up in bed, her eyes bright with her love for me, and the sense of doing right swells. ‘Granny, I’d like to read you something...’
EPILOGUE
Eighteen months later
‘IF YOU’D TOLD me I’d be wearing a skirt I would have said no—you know that, right?’
Philip fluffs out the sides of his kilt as he says it and I can’t help erupting into a giggle.