A Casterglass Garden by Kate Hewitt

Author:Kate Hewitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781956387247
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2022-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Olivia knew from the moment Will started to withdraw from her arms that he was, deeply and completely, regretting his momentary weakness. And yet she couldn’t regret it, or the intimacy she’d felt when she’d held him in her arms; she had tears in her own eyes, simply from witnessing his pain, and if she could have, she would have put her arms around him yet again and drawn him towards her, but she knew from the look of stony misery on his face, the way he was already angling his body away from hers, that that was the last thing he wanted. But oh, she ached to hold him, to comfort him, to love him.

Down, girl. She couldn’t go full bore quite yet, surely.

Will glugged the last of his wine, his gaze determinedly averted. “Sorry about that,” he managed, trying for a jokey tone and failing. “I don’t know what came over me. It’s been a tough day, I guess, and I’m really tired.” He tried for a laugh that came out more like a cough as he wiped his eyes. His face was blotchy; he’d been properly crying, his body shaking as Olivia had held him. She could still remember exactly how he’d felt in her arms, the solidness of his body, the woodsmoke smell of his hair.

She hesitated, wishing she knew what to say, or maybe just that she had the courage to say it. “You don’t have to apologise, Will,” she managed quietly. “At all.”

“Well.” He tugged at his collar, then dropped his hand. He still wasn’t looking at her. “That was the last kind of thing you needed right now, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t mind.” He shook his head as if to negate that sentiment, and Olivia fell silent. When it came to moments like these, to actually putting your heart on the line just a little bit, she was a complete coward and she knew it.

A silence stretched between them, the only sound the crackling of the fire. Will was staring off into the middle distance as if he couldn’t bear to look at her, and now Olivia felt as if she were the one who could now cry. Don’t ruin it, she wanted to tell him, just because you’ve shown me you can be weak. It’s okay to be weak—goodness knows, I am.

But she didn’t dare say any of that, because she doubted Will wanted to hear it, and anyway did she have the right, considering her own unpleasantly sordid history? Did she even have the right to be here, pretending to be all about family when less than three months ago a woman had called her a homewrecker, and she’d been right?

Now Olivia was the one looking away, and still the silence stretched on, turned uncomfortable.

“I feel like a prat,” Will said suddenly, and for some reason this made Olivia let out a startled laugh.

“Well, you shouldn’t,” she told him, trying to smile. “Would it help if I cried, too?”

He looked at her with a seriousness she hadn’t expected.

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