‘Oh. That’s good, isn’t it?’

‘It’s wonderful.’

‘What’s it like being home again?’

‘Dreadful.’

I can hear his distant laugh and it turns my insides out. ‘Is it okay to talk?’ he asks.

‘It’s fine,’ I reply, a tear escaping from beneath my eyelashes. ‘I’d nearly given up on you.’

‘We’ve had a tough time here,’ he says with an expressive noise. ‘There was some unseasonal rain last week that caused one hell of a mudslide and blocked the mountain path. I’ve spent the past five days with the villagers digging us out. This is the first time since you left that I’ve been able to walk down to Pokhara.’

I forget that Dean has more elemental problems to contend with.

‘I thought you might have been worried,’ Dean says.

I hold the phone closer to me, trying to squeeze nearer to him, even if it’s just by a few millimetres. ‘I was very worried.’

‘I read all your emails,’ he says. ‘You sound very bright and breezy.’

Pressing my lips together, I answer, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t believe everything you read.’

I can feel his concern coming down the line. ‘Have you been okay?’

‘Great,’ I say without conviction. ‘And you?’

There’s a long pause and I think the phone might have gone dead.

‘No,’ he says with a lengthy sigh. ‘I guess I’m not great.’ There’s another long, staticky gap, which my heart fills by beating loudly. ‘I’m missing you.’

I can’t stop the tears from falling. ‘I miss you too.’

‘Oh, Lyssa,’ he breathes. And I know there are a thousand things we need to say and can’t. ‘Any chance that you’re going to come back and visit me?’

‘I’d love to.’

Dean’s voice softens. ‘Make it real soon,’ my gorgeous lover says.

And I know in an instant exactly where my heart lies.

Chapter seventy-seven

Chapter seventy-seven

‘I can’t stay,’ I say to Monica. She’s pulled up her chair so that it’s right next to my desk.

‘I think we’d gathered that already,’ she replies.