Tracking her down had been almost impossible. Felipe had gone back to her apartment but she’d already left. He’d immediately engaged a private detective and paid triple the premium rate because he was not losing her again. When her location had been pinged to him, it broke his heart. He’d immediately summoned a helicopter.
An hour later he walked through the town. She was sitting in a café near the bus stop with tear-stained eyes.
‘Sophia…’ He gripped the tin tightly instead of tossing it to the ground and grabbing her.
Her lips pressed together. Yeah, it was up to him to talk.
‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered, sinking into the seat opposite hers. ‘So often I’m at my absolute worst around you.’
She swallowed, visibly working to relax. ‘Then why have you followed me here?’
‘Because I’ll follow you anywhere. Always. I can’t ever let you go again.’
She turned to stone before him.
‘I was so jealous. So insecure,’ he confessed, trying to make her understand. ‘My feelings overwhelm me and I constantly fret about your feelings for me. I always have. Truth is I never felt good enough for you. You wouldn’t talk to me when anyone was around.’
‘My father would have destroyed you.’
He nodded. ‘Which is why my mother told me to be careful.’
‘She needed the job, especially after your father died.’
‘It wasn’t only that. She worried for you.’
Sophia’s expression softened. ‘She was always kind to me. She loved your father, and her ring shouldn’t be worn by anyone you don’t have deep feelings for.’
‘You don’t think I have deep feelings for you?’ He gazed at her then set the tin on the table between them. ‘You were right to accuse me of being acquisitive. I truly am quite the magpie.’ He prised off the lid. ‘My mother kept biscuits in here for you, remember?’
Sophia barely nodded.
‘You gave me this hair tie when the bag of pistachios I was carrying broke. I retied it with this till I got back to the storeroom.’ He’d not given it back. He’d kept it. He set it on the table by the tin and pulled out a paperback. ‘You read and reread this constantly that summer. I took it the day before you were due to leave. It had your name in it, your touch. You brought a new copy with you the following year so I didn’t have to give this one back.’
‘I would have given it to you if you’d asked.’
Ah, but he’d been fearful of asking. He pulled out the next item. ‘You used this hair tie to slingshot pebbles into the deep end of the pool one evening.’
‘You took it off me,’ she whispered.
‘I did. You were making more work for me. I dived in the pool later to get the pebbles out.’
He reached into the tin and pulled out five grey stones and set them on the table as if they were the rarest, most precious gemstones in the world. Sophia’s cheeks flushed.
‘You’d doodled on them,’ he breathed.
The hearts had faded, but they were still there.
‘I liked to imagine it was a message for me.’ He didn’t take his gaze off her. ‘I haven’t opened this tin in years but I could never, ever get rid of it.’ He sent her a crooked smile. ‘Felipe Mazzoni, teen stalker at your service. And now I’m right back where I started.’ He pulled out the last thing. ‘Here’s your hair tie from the ball the other night.’
She blinked and a tear fell.
‘When I saw you with Ares that night, I felt awful,’ he rushed on, desperate not to move yet. ‘I blamed you unfairly. And I unfairly asked too much of you. You were right to say no. But I couldn’t understand that then. Instead, I became determined to attain everything I thought you considered successful, so that if ever we met again you’d regret rejecting me. The other night I thought I’d have the satisfaction of saying no to you, but that’s not how it worked out.’
He’d never had satisfaction from that. He’d been devastated. And then everything had changed. Being with Sophia at last had been the best moment of his life.
Hiding his feelings had only hurt him. And her. He couldn’t do it to either of them anymore. Finally, he admitted the absolute truth.
‘I’m in love with you Sophia. I’ve always been in love with you.’
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