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“My dad said loving someone and being in love aren’t the same thing, and maybe he’s right. Perhaps love is something that comes with time. But I’m definitelyinlove with you. Are you in love with me?” I tip my head so I can look deep into her eyes.
Her lips part and a light flush, pink as the sunset, appears in her cheeks. “Maybe. But I don’t know how it could possibly work between us.”
“We’ll make it work,” I say firmly.
Her brows draw together.
I take her hands. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t make sense to talk about Where This is Going so early on…”
“I don’t see a problem with having a map to follow on the journey. Doesn’t mean you have to stick to it.”
She swallows hard. “It’s just… I’m afraid you’re going to make me leave the commune.”
It’s my turn to frown. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“But I don’t see how it can work unless I do, because you’re not going to want to come and live here.”
“Well, I have to point out that you haven’t asked me…”
Her mouth opens, but no words come out.
I blow out a long breath. “Look, you’re right in that I have no great desire to live in a commune. But good relationships involve compromise, right?”
She nods.
“So for now maybe a few times a week we could go on dates. Go to the city for a meal or a show, or you could come to the club and spend some time with Marama and Elizabeth, who both really liked you, and I’m happy to come and meet your friends here. If you want to, sometimes you can stay with me at my apartment, or at the club, or I can stay with you here—I have no objection to that. And then maybe,down the line, we could… I don’t know… get a place of our own a mile or two away, on the coast? Close enough so you could walk or ride to the commune every day? But somewhere of our own so we’d have the privacy I prefer?”
She presses her fingers to her lips. “Do you mean that?” she whispers, her voice husky with emotion.
“I do. I mean obviously it’s one step at a time. But I want you to understand that we have a future, if we’re prepared to make it work. And I want it to. I want to be with you, Scarlett. I want you in my life.”
I cup her face and move closer to her, and she looks up into my eyes. Hers are shining, and her bottom lip trembles, but she doesn’t let the tears fall.
“You’ve been so brave,” I murmur. “I know you’ve had George and the others at the commune to help, but you’ve had an awful lot to deal with, and what’s happened over the past few weeks has been very hard on you.”
“I’ve felt so alone,” she whispers.
“I know. But you’re not alone now. I’m here. I don’t want to interfere at all, but I would like to help you and the others make Kahukura a well-run institution that funds itself, with a strong financial structure.”
“You’ve already been so generous…”
I hesitate. Then I say, “I have something to admit to you.”
Her eyebrows rise. “Oh?”
I rub the back of my neck. Then I confess, “My pain has gone.”
Her mouth forms an O. “Really?”
“Yeah. I only realized yesterday, when I went to take my morning painkillers and realized I didn’t need them. Look, I’m a man of fact and figures. I believe in proof and evidence, and science over mysticism. Despite this, I know you won’t believe me, but I like to think I’m open minded. Something that’s happened over the past few weeks has helped my pain. Maybe I’ve just healed naturally. Perhaps it was being at the Waiora, or you laying your hands on me. It could just be being with you.” I smile. “Or maybe it’s because I’ve finally made peace with my father, and like you said, it was internal stress and tension causing the pain. But the fact is that I feel better. I’ve seen you at work, and I truly believe you can help people in trouble. I believe in what you do, and I want to help you make the world a better place.” I wince. “Don’t tell Kingi I said that. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
She gives me such a beautiful smile that my heart fills with joy.