Darcy nods, feeling slightly ashamed that she’s buzzing off the adrenaline suddenly pumping through her body. She’s going to ensure Ty and Penny come face to face again.

Chapter 51

51

Bonnie’s getting ready to close up for the day when there’s a knock at the back entrance to her studio. This throws her as she’s usually the only person who uses it. With some hesitation she crosses to the door and opens it a little warily.

Ollie stands in the darkened shadows of the business car park. She hasn’t seen him since he turned up on her doorstep after her last day on The One. The same night the photos were taken of them.

‘Look at you.’ Oliver’s deep voice fills the air between them and immediately awakens butterflies in her belly.

She takes a few steps backwards, allowing space for him to come in.

‘I’ve always loved you in that colour.’ His eyes meet hers a little daringly. ‘Very sexy.’

Bonnie’s wearing a purple peasant top, more pretty than sexy, but her cheeks warm all the same. ‘Thanks.’

‘You got the flowers?’ He gestures to the over-the-top bouquet that is sitting on her desk.

‘You shouldn’t have.’ A courier had dropped them off yesterday with a note saying, I’m sorry. Her eyes had kept wandering to them all afternoon and when she’d opened the studio first thing this morning, the fragrance had filled her with hope.

‘I wanted to.’ He shrugs. ‘I shouldn’t have sent that text. It was out of line.’

She feels grateful that he’s realised this. Bile had crept up her throat when she read the words. She’d tortured herself with what to write back in response, but in the end she hadn’t written back at all.

‘I didn’t mean to make things worse,’ she tells him. She honestly hadn’t set out to hurt Sophie or damage Ollie’s relationship with her.

‘You only told her what she already assumed.’

Bonnie can’t bring herself to ask how much Sophie told him of their conversation.

‘I think she knew something was going on before you went away, but she didn’t ask if anything had happened between us until after she lost the baby.’

Bonnie can’t help but notice that he said ‘she’ and not ‘we’, as though the miscarriage was something that happened to Sophie alone rather than to the both of them. Bonnie can understand Sophie choosing not to mention things earlier—after all she’d had a baby to keep Oliver by her side—but after the miscarriage, the threat of him leaving might have brought out insecurities she’d previously been able to ignore.

‘Suddenly she was furious, accusing me of having feelings for you, insisting something happened before you went away. I know she needed someone to blame for the miscarriage but …’ He shakes his head, a little flippant about the situation.