Chapter Five

She dried her hair and let it fall loose around her shoulders, it’d taken over thirty minutes for to de-sand herself, with a little help from Jon. But so worth it, she smiled at herself in the mirror. The woman staring back at her was well sexed with her pink cheeks and glowing skin.

Moments like these almost made the unbearable weeks in-between not seeing each other ok, almost.

She scooped up the towels and dumped them in the hamper and then padded out to see what else the man could possibly have in store for her. She’d been thinking a lot about things before she came to St Bart’s, entertaining further her own ideas of an individual advertising firm in New York. Her father expected her to go as her relationship with Jon had bloomed, but she also knew she was holding onto the last thing her mother gave her before she died, the company.

Jon was sitting out on the deck in a white v-neck tee and a pair of camouflage shorts, and when he saw her he picked up the spoon and handed it to her. “Dessert?”
She plucked it out of his hand and slipped into the chair opposite him, where an ice-cream sundae waited for her slathered in chocolate, sprinkled with nuts.

“Where’s the cherry?” Her lips twitched at the mock horror on his face. “Oh god, this is good.” She savoured and dug in for more.

He scooped his own spoon and faced her, “I was going to make us share, then I decided that I needed you nice and revitalised for bedtime.” His brow waggled as he licked his spoon.

“More sex huh? Trying to kill me so I can’t go back?” That wouldn’t be a bad thing of course, she thought to herself. “God this house is amazing, I can’t believe how secluded it is for such a tiny island.”

“I can pick them,” he swirled some ice-cream around in his glass. “What would you say if I said that you owned this beach house, with me?”

Her eyes widened, “you’re kidding me?”

“Nope, had it done and dusted before I came. Just need your signature on the legal documents and it’s ours.”

“You bought property, in my name?” God, she shouldn’t be this pissed off at him. But she was.

“Our name LJ, it’s our first investment.”

“With your money.”

“It’s only money, I’m not asking you to pay your half, I’m telling you I bought it for you.”

“It’s a big thing Jon, I know we’ve said we needed to make some moves, and some changes but I’d have liked to be asked first.”

“I knew you’d get funny over this, LJ it’s just a holiday house. Hell, I’ll take your name off it if you want me too.”

She wiped her mouth with the napkin, and settled back. “It’s just a big thing. I would have liked to have been consulted on it, that’s all.”

He sighed and licked the back of his spoon. “What are we doing LJ?”

“We’re sitting having ice-cream and you’re buying the world with my name on it, that’s what we’re doing.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake.” The silverware clattered with glass as he stood. “I did it to show you, I’m serious about you, about us since you won’t move to New York.”

“What?” Ok, now she was mad. He’d never asked her to move to New York, she’d been thinking about it to discuss with him, while they were here in fact. But now, it just made her angry that he had been expecting her to do it. “Why do I have to be the one to move?” She knew damn well, and if this hadn’t happened she wouldn’t be as pissed off about it.

“I have more there.” The screech of her chair made him wince, “that’s not what I mean Lily and you know it. I meant-"

She held her hand up. “Oh, I know what you meant Jon, I know what you damn meant.” She turned, but stopped. “I was going to ask you while we were here how you felt about this, was going to ask to work it out but I had been considering starting my own firm in New York, so I could move. So I could be with you, but right now... I’m not sure even sure why I bothered.”

She left him standing there and headed out to the beach, it was dark and the cool night breeze stirred her as she trudged through the sand. Moments ago she was the one being pounded on the sand, not her feet. She shouldn’t have yelled, shouldn’t have been angry, what he did was thoughtful and romantic, he bought them a beach house in the middle of nowhere for goodness sakes. Who didn’t want that? But it was more than that, he should have known she didn’t take kindly to decisions been made out of her control. Him of all people.

She sank down on her butt and watched the ocean gleam under the moon, she needed to cool off before talking to him again. It was a big- no it was a huge thing her giving up her life in London, one she’d built from the ground up but she’d slowly come to reason that he was worth it. He was worth starting all over again for. Maybe it was that, that scared her the most. What if she moved, and it all turned pear shaped? That’s why she’d waited so long, until she knew he loved her. No one had ever loved her the way he had.

No one.

~

He was tempted to run after her as her sunny colored dress disappeared out onto the beach. He hadn’t seen that coming, he should have kept his mouth shut about the move to New York, he knew it was a hard subject on both sides. He scratched his head and headed back inside for a drink, a stiff one. He couldn’t move to London, it just wasn’t viable and he wasn’t being an asshole about it. It was the truth. If that wasn’t going to work, they’d just have to spend months with each other instead of this one week, two weeks here and there.

His work was able to be done remotely, apart from the recording and touring obviously but the rest he could work it in, with careful planning and preparation. Maybe he could set up an office in his apartment for her to video conference, and run her firm from when she stayed with him? The time difference would kill her though, but they could work this out. They had to; they had gone beyond the option of not working this out.

He hadn’t expected love to come around again like it did, but he knew the day he met her, she was different. She was so strong and so independent like Dot, but the difference was Lily knew how to inspire him, how to motivate him and he envied her drive. They worked so well as a team, but both knew when to stand back and let the other be. He’d let Dot do what she wanted, and truthfully not paid that much interest into it, but with Lily he yearned to know what she was doing and of course, he loved her like crazy. The kind of love that gave you twists in the belly when you thought about them and how much you missed them.

God he was stupid, how many times had he listened to Lily talk about the battle she’d overcome with her firm, to get where she was as a woman, knowing she’d worked twice as hard than he did.

He needed a cigarette.

He found his bag, fished out one and lit it swiftly. If Lily was anything like him, and she was, he’d let her cool down before talking to her again after he removed his foot from his own ass.