But did she love him? She hadn’t said so. Was he a fool to think she would be interested in resuming their fling?
Lucas scraped a hand through his hair and sighed. He had half an hour before he was meeting his father for a quick coffee. Lionel—Lucas couldn’t remember the last time he had called his father ‘Dad’—was flying in for a business meeting. He could think of a dozen things he’d rather be doing this morning, but he hadn’t seen his father in over a year. At least he would be able toseehim—perhaps not as clearly as he would have liked, but still it was an improvement, and he was thankful for it.
The coffee shop was in Mayfair, and Lucas saw his father sitting at one of the tables in the window as he approached. His father was looking down at his phone, no doubt scrolling through endless emails and messages, his life so busy he could only slot in ten minutes for his son.
Lucas realised with a jolt that he was like his father in more ways than he cared to admit. Before he’d lost his sight, hadn’t he been the busy man, with no time for anything but the most fleeting of relationships?
His father looked up from his phone when Lucas came to the table. ‘Lucas. Nice to see you. Sit down. I’ve just got to send this email to my lawyer in Brazil.’
Lucas sat opposite and the waitress came over and took his order for coffee. His father continued to tap away at his phone, a frown on his forehead.
‘Your lawyer?’ Lucas asked when he could stand it no longer. ‘Is everything all right?’
His father put his phone down on the table, his expression sheepish. ‘Rosa is leaving me.’
‘Should I ask why?’
‘I probably deserve it.’ Lionel Rothwell sighed. ‘I had a tiny little fling with someone I met at a party. Rosa found out.’
‘I’m starting to lose count of how many times you’ve been married and divorced.’
It was hard for Lucas to erase the cutting judgement in his tone. But how many times did his father have to go through this before something changed? Beforehechanged?
‘I guess I’m not the settling down type...’ Lionel toyed with his teaspoon. ‘A little like you, I guess. Once a playboy, always a playboy, right?’
‘People can change,’ Lucas said. ‘You can change if you’re motivated enough. Do you love Rosa?’
‘Of course.’
‘Have you told her?’
‘Heaps of times.’
‘Have you shown it? Words are cheap. Actions are more important.’
But who was he to be giving his father advice on love? He hardly qualified as a relationships expert. He was a failure at relationships. He had failed at the one relationship he valued the most—his relationship with Ruby. Why hadn’t he realised until this morning that his anger over her ending their fling was because he loved her?
He loved her. He loved her. He loved her.
The words were like beams of golden bright light shining into a room after a lifetime of shadows. They were like seeing sharp detail after months of seeing nothing but blurred edges. The scales had finally fallen from his eyes and he could see what had been staring him in the face all this time—he loved Ruby.
And didn’t her actions tell him she felt the same about him, even though she hadn’t said the actual words? He had been so locked down emotionally, so blind emotionally, he hadn’t even recognised his own feelings—let alone hers.
Ruby had told him once that the thing people tried so hard to avoid was often the very thing they most needed to grow as a person. He had been avoiding love all his life. Avoiding it, blocking it, sabotaging it just like his father.
But no longer.
He was not going to run away from the fear of loving someone fully. He was not going to shy away from a wholehearted commitment. Ruby deserved her fairy tale, and he would knock himself into shape as Prince Charming if it was the last thing he did.
Lionel picked up his coffee cup, his expression mocking. ‘Listen to you. What’s made you such an expert on love, eh? Or should I say who?’
‘Did you ever truly love Mum?’
Lionel reared back as if insulted by the question. ‘Of course.’ He frowned and added, ‘I married her three times, didn’t I?’
‘And divorced her three times.’
‘Yes, well... That’s all in the past.’