Tati allowed herself to be led away. As she and Jason passed the dance floor, she saw the bride, barefoot and beautiful, twirling around with her new husband. Stella’s smile could have lit the marquee on its own, and powered the rest of the village as well. Tatiana tried to remember the last time she had felt that happy, but her mind drew a blank.
She’d told herself that spending more time in the Swell Valley would lift her spirits and be good for her soul. Brockhurst Abbey, which she’d bought on a whim, sight unseen, would be ready to move into in a few months. But she realized now that, however hard her architect and interior designer worked, it would never feel like home. While Furlings was still standing, and while that bastard Brett Cranley kept it from her, she was condemned to wander the world like a lost soul, an eternal refugee.
Jason kept telling her she was fooling herself. That getting Furlings back would not solve all her problems, the way that she imagined it would. That it would not right the wrongs of the past because, as Jason succinctly put it, ‘Nothing can do that.’ With her rational mind, Tati knew he was right. And yet emotionally that house, her dead father and Brett Cranley formed some sort of mystical triangle from which she could not break free. From which, on some deep, subconscious level, she didn’t want to break free.
But tonight, for the first time, she asked herself the question: Was it Furlings she wanted? Or was it Brett Cranley?
The truth was she had unfinished business with both of them.
She felt a little better on the car journey home. The Range Rover was warm and comfortable, and Jason’s Handel CD soothed the throbbing in her head. The nausea that had plagued her all afternoon was finally gone now too, a relief so sweet it was impossible to remain entirely unhappy.
Glancing over her shoulder into the back seat, she smiled. ‘Look,’ she said to Jason. Logan and Tom were both fast asleep, their arms wrapped around one another. ‘They’re like puppies.’
‘They are,’ Jason agreed.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes. At a red light, Jason turned towards Tati and rested a hand on her leg. It was the first truly calm moment they’d had together since Tati’s return from New York. The moment Jason had been waiting for.
‘There’s something I have to tell you,’ he said quietly.
Tati felt her heart rate quicken, but she didn’t flinch. It could not be avoided forever.
She was ready.
‘I’m sorry, Tatiana.’ Jason looked her squarely in the eye. ‘I’ve fallen in love with someone else.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Back at the house on Eaton Gate, Tati settled Logan and Tom into the blue guest room and waited till all was quiet upstairs before joining Jason in the kitchen.
‘I thought I’d make us some tea.’
He’d carefully set a pot and two mugs down on the table, along with a plate of chocolate Hobnobs. Another couple might have opted for a stiff drink, but actually tea was exactly what Tati wanted. Something normal and soothing, something that was going to make everything all right.
‘Thank you.’
They both sat down while Jason poured. After a few moments’ silence, Jason was the first to speak.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said simply.
‘Don’t be,’ said Tati. ‘We both knew things weren’t right. May I ask who it is?’
Jason looked down at the table, his whole body suddenly rigid with tension. Tati watched the way his fingers coiled nervously around one another, like trapped snakes. Reaching out, she put her own hand over his.
‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘Really. And if you’re feeling guilty, for God’s sake don’t. I slept with someone else myself last month. In New York.’
Jason looked up, surprised. ‘Did you?’
Tati nodded, blushing.
‘Someone serious?’
The question was more curious than accusatory. Tati thought how odd it was, to be sitting here discussing infidelity over a cup of tea in their kitchen, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘Not serious. At least, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t want you to think I made a habit of being unfaithful,’ she blurted. ‘This was the first time. A one-off.’
Jason squeezed her hand tightly. ‘You don’t have to explain.’
‘I do,’ said Tati. ‘We’re married.’
‘I know,’ said Jason. ‘But we never should have been.’
Tati let out a long breath. ‘No,’ she agreed softly. ‘We never should have been. We should have stayed friends.’
‘We have stayed friends,’ Jason said, suddenly impassioned. ‘We are friends, Tati. And I hope we always will be.’
Tati’s eyes welled up with tears. She blinked them away, wrapping her hands around her mug, allowing its warmth to comfort her. The irony was, it wasn’t sadness that she felt. It was pure, unadulterated relief.
‘Of course we will,’ she said at last. ‘Always. So tell me. You have found someone serious?’
Jason nodded.
‘You said you were in love?’
‘I think I am,’ he smiled shyly.
‘Do I know her?’ asked Tati.
Jason was quiet for a moment, his eyes fixed on the table. At last he forced himself to look Tati in the eye.