A Jersey Kiss (Jersey Romance Series) (35 page)

TWENTY-EIGHT

A New Leaf

Bea was so busy skipping around the hallway she didn’t hear Luke knock at the front door.
“Oh.” She stopped instantly as he poked his head around the door. Not caring how idiotic she looked she waved him in.

He laughed.
“You obviously beat Simon then?”

“
Not completely.” She didn’t care about Simon right now, or the outcome of the court case. “Better than that.”

He looked puzzled.
“You seem very pleased with yourself about something though. I’ve got a surprise for you.” He held out an envelope to her, but when she went to take it, he pulled his hand back. “I know what the Jersey Kiss is that your aunt left to you.”

“
Me too,” she giggled. Luke looked stunned. “Really, I have, but you go first. Tell me what you’ve found out.” She could barely contain her excitement, but was so touched that Luke had been looking for the mysterious Jersey Kiss she wanted to see what he had to tell her.

“
You know the picture I took last autumn?” Bea thought back, remembering and smiled; it had been under their noses the entire time. “Well, I showed it to my uncle. He's a horticulturist and he’d never seen one before. He double checked and it seems like your aunt has propagated a new strain of Amaryllis Belladonna.”

“
I know, the Jersey Lily.” Bea clapped her hands together and squealed.

Luke laughed and nodded.
“He tells me that although it's too late this year for any of the big specialist shows, like Chelsea or Hampton Court, if you were to show it there or maybe at one of the other larger shows you could get it noticed all around the world and make decent money by supplying specialists.”

Bea listened in silence. She hadn’t thought that far; he’d obviously done his research.

“Gardeners across the world love discovering new strains of plants and this one is especially pretty. The money you bring in could help you keep this place. I'm sure I'm right.”

Bea stood on tiptoes and took his smiling face in her hands. She kissed him.
“You are.” She held out the envelope she’d received a short while before. “This came in the post today.” She watched as Luke took the paper out and read it.

“
Bloody hell, it’s the licence for A Jersey Kiss. This is amazing, Bea. I never thought I could be so excited about a plant.”

Bea laughed,
“Me, neither. Clever Aunt Annabel; so this is the secret that she’d mentioned to me over the years. I never really took much notice, she was always telling me stories about Antonio and I assumed it was something to do with him.” She paused and stared into his eyes, almost overwhelmed by her relief and excitement at their discoveries.

“
Bea, this could be the answer to all your worries. I’m so happy for you.” He looked down at her, his mouth breaking into a lazy smile. “I can’t believe I’ve been wracking my brains trying to come up with a solution to your finances. I would have been able to give it to you months ago if my uncle hadn’t been on a world cruise when I first sent him the photo.”

“
But I have it now,” she said, painfully aware how in love with him she was. He was so genuinely happy for her. “Hell, I’ve just remembered it was your court date yesterday, too. I suppose the fact you’re actually standing here right now means you were let off the charges?”

He grinned.
“Yes, thankfully I was. They decided I didn’t have a case to answer, although my partner Chris does.” His smile disappeared and a haunted look crossed his face. “I’m afraid it looks like Tom will do time, too.”

Bea couldn’t help feeling a tinge of sadness at the person she’d thought Tom to be. It was still hard to take in his part in Luke’s investigation.
“I can’t believe he tried to implicate you in the case,” she said. “I feel so bad doubting you at all.”

“
Hey, it’s not your fault. It’s your job to be wary of people being dishonest with money. You have to be careful and it’s not like you knew me at all well.”

“
I do now though, and I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t say anything more about it.” He kissed her just as she went to reply, then lifted her up in a bear hug, his muscular arms encircling hers. “You’re incredible. Do you know that?” He kissed her until she was dizzy. “You did the right thing,” he said lowering her back down and becoming serious once again. “Why should you have believed me? You’re a professional and I could have been feeding you a lie, just like Tom did, but you acted as you should have done. We won’t mention it again. Now, about your Jersey Kiss.”

Bea kissed him again.
“That one?” she teased, breathing in the soapy scent of his warm skin.

He tickled her waist. Bea screeched.
“No, the other one. The one that’s going to make you a great deal of money if you’re clever with it, which I’m sure you’re going to be.” He took her by the hand and led her through the kitchen and out into the walled garden. “That one there.” Luke pointed to the area where the lilies had been the previous autumn.

“
I’d love it if you’d help me look into the best way forward with this.”

He nodded,
“I’ll do whatever you like.”

Bea, remembering her conversation with Mel, reluctantly changed the subject.
“Did you know Mel and Grant bumped into Leilani at the airport?”

His eyes glistened with amusement.
“So you know what happened then?”

Bea nodded.
“We seem to have been keeping quite a few secrets from each other up until now.”

“
We have.” He kissed her neck. “That’s got to change, don’t you think?”

Bea happily agreed.
“She’s incredibly beautiful,” Bea said, not enjoying stating the obvious, but wanting everything cleared up between them once and for all. “I don’t understand how you would split up from her.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his answer but when he didn’t say anything, she continued. “Why didn’t you marry Leilani?”

“
Because I love someone else.” Luke’s expression turned serious. He didn’t take his eyes off her.

Bea eyes widened at his blatant admission. She felt bereft and tried to step back from him. He held on to her arms.
“So what are you doing here, then?”

“
I wanted to clear the air between us and find a way to help you sort out your problems with Simon.”

Confused, Bea frowned.
“Why?”

“
You know why.”

She struggled to get away from him without any luck.
“No, I don’t.”

“
I would have thought it was obvious.” He looked down at her, his mouth turning up slightly at the sides.

“
No, it’s not. You’ve been dating a beautiful model for months. Who, it turns out, didn’t dump you at all,” she said, hands on hips. “She told Mel and Grant the whole story.”

“
Oh.” He kicked a small stone off the path with the toe of his boot.

“
Yes, oh,” Bea teased. “But I don’t understand what that’s got to do with us?”

Damn, thought Bea. He wants me to spell it out to him. She sighed.
“You told Leilani you aren’t ready for commitment,” she said, feeling exposed and awkward under his scrutiny, but determined to know everything. “That’s why she’s gone, isn’t it?”

“
Yes, but I meant with her,” he said, not elaborating further.

She couldn’t think what to say next and knew that as much as she didn’t want to make any more relationship mistakes, this handsome man in front of her was everything she could ever imagine wanting. Bea, unable to say anything else, turned around and picked up a large twig.

After a short silence, Luke stepped up behind her and took her firmly in his arms. “Bea,” he said, his breath on the back of her neck shooting a million neutrons down her central nervous system, sending it into overdrive. “I did tell Leilani that, and I didn’t lie. I was trying to let her down gently. To be honest our relationship, which has been more of a friendship than anything else for a few years now, had dragged on for months longer than it should have done.”

Bea stood silently, dropped the twig and letting her hands wander up to where his arms crossed around her and gently curled her fingers over the taught muscles.
“I only started seeing her when I thought you were involved with Tom, and then it was really as friends. Childish, I know, but I fell in love with you so quickly, it took me by surprise and I wasn’t really sure how to deal with it.” He lowered his voice. “We haven’t slept together for a few years now.” Bea raised her eyebrows disbelievingly, but stopped herself from saying anything. She didn’t want to interrupt him, or give him a reason not to tell her everything. “I couldn’t understand why you kept pulling away from me whenever we seemed to be getting close. I know now about Tom and the tipping off business, but then it just messed with my mind. After that night we spent together I hoped everything would be okay.”

“
And it wasn’t,” she groaned, resenting Tom more than ever for keeping them apart for so long.

“
Enough of that. What’s past is gone and I think we should start afresh.”

Bea smiled.
“I couldn’t agree more.”

He sighed heavily, turning her round to face him.
“Beatrice Porter or Philips, or whatever your name is now, I love you. Surely you must know that?”

Taken back by his unexpected announcement, Bea couldn’t hide her smile.
“How could I?” she asked, unable to take in the enormity of his words.

He held her tightly against him. She could barely breathe, but couldn’t be any happier.
“I fell in love with you the moment I saw you at the engagement party,” he admitted, “when you went the wrong way around the palm to see who was talking to you.” He kissed her neck; Bea was relieved he was holding her tightly, so her legs wouldn’t give way entirely.

She turned to face the man who she had desperately tried to forget, the same one who now was doing his best to help her to sort out her financial worries and the man who’d stopped her from becoming involved with Tom’s arrest the previous morning. She knew she loved him more than she could imagine loving any other man.
“You love me,” she said making certain she had heard correctly.

“
I do.” He nodded, kissing her once again. “Do you think you’d consider marrying me?”

Bea didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, I would. I love you, Luke Thornton,” she whispered, enjoying being able to say the words aloud to him.

“
And you know I love you.” He took her hand, leading her slowly back towards the house, past the rosemary, its summery scent wafting in the warm air. “Maybe now you’ll take me up on that offer to have dinner on my boat?”

“
I think I could do that,” she giggled.

Luke turned to her, thought for a bit and then, taking a piece of the thin green wire from the nearby trellis supporting her honeysuckle, bent it round and fashioned it into a primitive ring. He took her left hand and slipped it on Bea’s fourth finger.
“Not the most beautiful of rings, but something to wear until the jewellers open up.”

Bea looked down silently at her grimy hand displaying what to her was the most precious ring.

“So what do you say to my proposal then?” he asked, kissing her fingers one by one.

Bea was barely able to speak.
“Does this mean you’ll take me back to the Ecrehous for our honeymoon?” she asked.

Luke smiled down at her,
“If that’s what you want, then of course I will,” he whispered, kissing her, just as Bea’s honeysuckle fell away from the trellis. Luke put a hand out to catch it immediately before it collapsed on the granite paving. “I promise you’re in safe hands.”

“
So it would seem.”

THE END