THE FINAL FALSON SAYS I DO Read Online Free Page B

try, but it’ll be hard. Right this minute you look like the nicest man in the world.’
    ‘That’s a delusion,’ he said self-consciously.
    ‘If you say so.’
    ‘I do say so. If you knew what a swine I really am you’d sock me in the jaw.’
    ‘Another time. Right now I have something else to ask of you.’ She slipped a hand into the jeans pocket and brought out the luscious engagement ring that she had worn until a few hours ago. ‘Will you give that back to Dan, please?’
    ‘Oh, heavens, now I remember. I’ve still got the other ring.’
    He reached into his jacket pocket and took out the wedding ring, laying the two of them side by side on the table.
    ‘I’ll give these to him as soon as I see him.’
    She didn’t reply. She was gazing at the rings as though transfixed. After a moment she brushed a hand over her eyes, but not soon enough to hide the tears.
    ‘I’m sorry, I just—’
    ‘You’ve endured enough,’ he said sympathetically. ‘Why don’t you go and lie down? I won’t disturb you. The bedroom’s yours. I’ll sleep out here on the sofa.’
    ‘Why are you so kind to me?’ she choked.
    Because I feel guilty for what I accidentally did to you.
    The words thrummed through his head, almost forcing their way out. But he controlled them and escorted her into the bedroom.
    ‘You’ll find some clean pyjamas in that drawer,’ he said, and hurried out before his conscience overwhelmed him.
    Left alone, she sat down on the bed, staring into space, unable to find the strength for anything else. In Jackson’s company, feeling his kindly care, she’d managed to cope. But now she felt as though she was drifting through infinity, in a world in which nothing was real.
    She had tried to describe how Dan had made her feel, but there were no words for the sensation of being newly alive that he had given her. For the first time in her life she’d felt valuable to someone. Her relationship with her mother was cordial, but she knew she’d never come first. Janine and her late father had adored each other with an intensity that had made Freya feel like an outsider.
    She’d made a life for herself, training as a nurse and passing her exams with honours. She’d had the pleasure of knowing that her parents were proud of her—especially her father, a learned man, who had been delighted that his brains had passed to his daughter. That had to be her consolation for the feeling of having been outside the enchanted circle.
    Her loneliness had been intensified when her father died. Mother and daughter had grieved, but not together. Janine had suffered mostly alone, in a place Freya had not been able to touch.
    But she was a successful nurse, and life had seemed settled on a conventional path until, two years after her father’s death, her mother had become engaged to the notorious Amos Falcon and she had begun to meet his five sons.
    Jackson had been the first, on that evening in the restaurant that he’d mentioned earlier. Their escape to the nearby Chinese restaurant had been merry, but there had been another feeling beneath her laughter. He was handsome, charming, and she wouldn’t have minded if he’d asked her out on a date.
    He hadn’t. She had sighed, shrugged, and returned to the young man she’d been dating, but who had suddenly seemed less interesting. They’d drifted apart.
    At last there had been the wedding of Janine and Amos in London, and a gathering of the whole family in a hotel the night before. Jackson had greeted her with a cry of, ‘There’s my little sister!’ and enfolded her in a huge hug.
    They’d moved away from the others to chat about how their lives were going. That had been before his television career, when he’d still been a newspaper journalist, with a thousand fascinating tales to tell. Freya had listened, promising herself that this time she would attract his interest. She’d already discovered how much he liked to laugh.
    ‘Go on—tell me more,’ she’d