Escape for Christmas

Chapter Thirty-Three

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

‘Are you sure you should be going tonight, Dad?’

Tegan was retying her father’s bow tie at her parents’ house.

‘Don’t fuss, please,’ Alan pleaded. ‘I won’t be overdoing it by spending a few hours out of the house, and I need it, after being cooped up for so long. And let’s face it, if something goes wrong, half the bloody boat is packed with medics.’

‘I hope we won’t need them,’ Tegan said.

Brody resisted the temptation to take off his own narrow black tie. He wasn’t used to formal wear, and he hadn’t worn his tux since a veterinary-awards do in London more than two years previously. He secretly longed to be at home, in front of the fire, with Harold for company.

Fiona appeared in a long dress, with a sparkly clutch bag under her shoulder. Brody was struck by how alike Tegan and her mother were: the same blonde hair, same slight figure, same air of brittle tension, except it was better disguised in Fiona’s case. They must both be worried sick about Alan, though he seemed jovial enough.

Tegan stepped back from her father, having finally fixed his tie. ‘There. Done. You look very smart.’

‘As does your mum. You both look absolutely smashing. Don’t they, Brody?’

Brody nodded. ‘Yes, they do,’ he agreed, adding, because for once he could speak the truth with a clear conscience, ‘stunning.’

‘I just need to touch up my make-up and then we can go,’ Tegan said. ‘I won’t be long. Brody?’

‘I’m coming. I need my wallet and phone from upstairs.’

‘Please don’t tell me you’re on-call?’ Tegan cried.

‘Not tonight,’ he promised. Although that meant there was no chance of him being called away and saved.

He followed Tegan up to her old bedroom, where they’d been getting ready for the party. Brody had come straight from work. He’d had a busy day catching up with patients and, in between his regular round of vaccinations and health checks, he’d extracted four teeth from a Miniature Schnauzer called Bentley and had microchipped a Hermann’s tortoise – a procedure he’d had to google. But none of the animals’ problems had even come close to stressing him out the way humans did.

Tegan sat down at the dressing table, topping up her lipstick.

Her grey satin dress had a draped back that showed off her bare shoulders. He’d seen it before; it was the same dress she’d worn on the night he’d first asked her out. Then, as now, she’d piled her hair on top of her head, and she wore sparkly studs in her ears. He’d turned up at a mutual friend’s posh birthday party, in his brogues and Barbour, after attending the difficult birth of a calf. He’d only meant to look in and hand over a gift, but he’d stayed, looking scruffy and probably a bit smelly, like a servant gatecrashing the aristos.

Yet Tegan had said he looked sexy, and Brody still had no idea why she would think that.

Just because his father and Alan were close didn’t mean that he and Tegan were predestined to be together, though that’s how people around him viewed it. That’s why it was going to be so hard to tell their families the truth, because he knew they were all willing them to have a happy ending.

He’d loved Tegan. He still cared for her – beyond friendship, nothing like the love for a brother or a cousin, yet not in any of the ways he should feel, for a partner in life. Perhaps he never had. Perhaps he’d been afraid, at thirty-five, to accept that he might never find a special someone.

‘You’re quiet,’ she said, talking to the mirror. ‘You might have shown more enthusiasm for my outfit. You were a bit cold and distracted downstairs and you need to be more affectionate, so my parents don’t start worrying something is wrong.’

‘You look fantastic,’ Brody muttered. ‘You always do.’

‘Thanks. It’s always nice to be told.’ She picked up a perfume bottle and sprayed it on her wrists.

‘Tegan …’ he began, steeling himself. ‘We need to talk about – this situation. Later, when we’re on our own, obviously.’

‘“Talk?”’ Her eyes widened in alarm, making Brody’s pulse rocket. She swung round to face him and heaved a deep sigh. ‘Yes, actually, I think you’re right. You see …’ she chewed her lip. ‘I have something I need to get off my chest.’ Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

Brody sucked in a breath. Had she finally come to the same conclusion as him? That they had to be honest with her parents now? With everyone? ‘I’m so glad we’re on the same page then.’ He felt a rush of relief.

She nodded. ‘I know. It’s killing me too.’ She walked over to him and put her arms around his neck. ‘But, you see, it doesn’t have to be a lie. We can make it real again.’

His heart almost stopped. ‘How?’

‘I’ve made a terrible mistake. I want us to try again.’

The shock robbed him of words.

‘I could try to win back your trust. I know you were devastated when we split up.’ She touched his face, and Tegan touching him like that made him tense up. ‘I took you for granted. I was so lonely when I first went to work in New York. I was overwhelmed, and the pressure was huge. I didn’t think I could make it, and Wes was … supportive. Charming.’

A tear trickled down her cheek and dropped onto the lapel of his jacket. ‘Or so I thought, but I was simply confused and alone. Now I realise that he isn’t a fraction of the man you are. I’ve made a huge mistake, Brody, and I want to put it right. This may come as a shock, but I’ve finished with Wes. I told him last night that it was over. I told him that,’ she gulped back a sob, ‘I was – am – still in love with you.’

‘Tegan …’

She held both his lapels. ‘So now we don’t have to pretend any longer.’

Brody was so numb with shock, he could barely frame a response. The situation was now even worse than before. He didn’t have feelings for Tegan any more, and he couldn’t believe that she thought she could come back and everything would be OK, just like it was. He realised that Tegan thinking he was much too nice meant she thought he was a pushover, but he wasn’t going to be. Not any longer.

He cleared his throat. ‘We can’t keep deceiving your parents, my mother – everyone. It’s wrong.’

‘It is, and I guessed my dad and mum were starting to suspect things hadn’t been right for a while. I decided to come clean, before you got home from work. I mentioned that we’ve been having some problems, but we’re back together now, so everything is going to be OK. And now Dad knows that, it means he can rest easy and not feel stressed.’

She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, but Brody pulled away.

‘And we will be OK, Brody. I know we will. I’m truly sorry for what I did, and I hope to earn your trust again. As long as you’re willing to try and make it work. It’s up to you.’