Page 111 of The Village Inn of Secret Dream

‘Well, this will never do,’ said Pete, before clearing his throat to sound less emotional. ‘This is supposed to be a celebration. What shall we have next?’

He played on for the rest of the evening until last orders were finally called at 11 o’clock.

And it was one of the best evenings of his life.

When last orders were called, Belle smiled at how reluctant everyone was to leave. The Kennedy family in particular were glowing with happiness. And possibly a few too many gin and tonics as well.

‘It’s been the best Christmas ever!’ said Cathy, drawing Pete into yet another bear hug.

Pete rolled his eyes over her shoulder at Belle, but he still let his mum hold him.

It had been an incredible evening, thought Belle. She had had no idea what had caused Pete to have a complete change of heart regarding playing his guitar, but she was glad. He finally seemed happy, whole even.

Josh gave his brother a brief hug before clapping him on the shoulder with his hand. ‘That was great,’ he said.

Pete nodded. ‘Yeah, it was,’ he replied.

Finally, when everyone had left, it was just him and Belle as he shut the front door and turned around.

‘So?’ he said. ‘I think that went pretty well, don’t you?’

She knew he was asking how she felt about him finally playing the guitar.

For once, the words wouldn’t come. But she knew what she had to do. What no power on earth would stop her from doing at that moment.

She walked right up to him, reached up to put her arms around his neck and pulled him down so that their lips met.

She felt his sharp intake of breath before his hands wrapped around her back and held her close to him as the kiss deepened.

After what seemed like an eternity, Belle finally drew back slightly.

‘We probably shouldn’t have done that,’ she said, slightly out of breath.

‘Then why does it feel so good?’ he said, before pulling her back against him once more.

The kiss continued, spiralling deeper and deeper until Belle began to lose all sense of where she was. There was nothing but Pete. Nothing but his passionate kisses.

If he kissed her like that, then he must feel something for her, she thought.

But, for once, she didn’t care about the future, nor the consequences.

All she cared about was being with him that night. Tomorrow would arrive eventually, but, for now, all she wanted was him.

59

It had been the best and worst week of Belle’s life, she realised, as she hung up the balloons for the New Year’s Eve party in the inn that evening.

She hadn’t been able to stop herself from kissing Pete on Christmas night. She just knew that she had had to kiss him one more time or she would have regretted it for the rest of her life. But, rather than being rejected as she had expected to happen, something had changed for them both and he had kissed her back. And he’d kept kissing her each and every night since then.

During the day, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling at the many customers that were now frequenting both the inn and the restaurant. Word had got out about the makeover and the inn was now a roaring success. The food in the restaurant was getting rave reviews and they had even had to start a lunchtime service for the inn so that people could have a sandwich and a bite to eat when they couldn’t get into the constantly full restaurant.

She felt as if her life was complete. Almost.

Because despite knowing how much Pete cared for her, despite how passionately he continued to kiss her and hold her each and every night when they were alone, there was still that tiny element of worry for Belle. Worry that he would ultimately reject her. That he would walk away from the inn and from her. That he didn’t love her and therefore her happy time would come crashing down around her at any moment.

After all, to trust in love was to trust that her heart wouldn’t be broken. And she still didn’t believe that couldn’t happen, especially to her.

He had never said he loved her and that was okay, most of the time. But sometimes, late at night, when he was fast asleep next to her, she lay there and worried that they were living on borrowed time. And she still didn’t trust him not to run away from her and from Cranbridge.