The Love Letter (22 page)

If so,
they’d met long before that collision outside his classroom. Their paths had crossed first here on the island. The more he thought about it, the more it made perfect sense. He marveled that he had missed what now appeared to be so clear in his mind. How had he not known who she was? The lovely green eyes and impishly sweet smile should have been his first clue.

S
omehow he knew Sabrina hadn’t made the connection. But why had she left the journal in the gazebo? And how would she react if he revealed his identity?

This new development
in their association was enough to keep Meredith awake for hours. As a logical person, he couldn’t continue to explain away this many coincidences. He and Sabrina had met several times in different places over a period of many years. The ties that bound them together were becoming too numerous to ignore. And to be truthful, Meredith was fast reaching the point where he didn’t want to avoid them any longer. Some things were just meant to be. It only remained for him to close the final loop.

Sabrina didn’t discover the loss of her journal for
several days. Her encounter with the yellow jackets made her forget everything else. After wasting a few hours searching her room and everywhere else in the inn she could think of, she remembered taking it to the gazebo. There wasn’t time to go there now – she would have to wait until after they did the tea service.

Dark
clouds had replaced the blue sky when Sabrina finally left the inn. Hoping it wouldn’t rain before she reached her destination, she hurried down the road. In no time, she was skipping up the steps of the gazebo. With a long sigh of relief, she retrieved the diary from its spot on the floor. It must have fallen off her lap when she got stung.

As she turned to go, she heard someone close by whistling. H
er eyes swerved toward the path, and her heart began to hammer in her chest. Someone was coming – someone with dark hair. As the tall figure got closer, she saw that it was Meredith. What was he doing here?

H
e had to lower his head to enter the gazebo. “Hello! Is it okay if I join you?”

Sabrina started at
his words. That’s what the young man had asked her all those years ago. “Sure. I wasn’t planning to stay; I came to get something I left here the other day.”

“I think it’s starting to rain; unless you like getting wet, you’re going to have to wait a bit.” He sat down and stretched out his long legs.
“It’s a nice place, isn’t it? I used to come here when I was younger.”

Sabrina looked at him curiously. “So did I.
Is it yours? The gazebo, I mean?”

“
It is now.”

“So it was you
who had it repaired. Why did you buy it? It’s not close to your house.”

“I hated to see it falling apart for one thing. And I
have many fond memories of this place.” He pointed to the journal in her hand. “Is that what you came for? I found it here a few days ago. I figured the owner would return for it.”

“Yes
, it’s mine,” she admitted with a frown. “Did you read it?”

He smiled into her cross face. “That’s a funny question for you to be asking me. O
f course I didn’t read it, but I did recognize it.”

S
abrina’s face lost all its pretty color. “That’s impossible unless you’ve been doing your own share of snooping.”

“
Nothing is impossible, Sabrina. Sit down and stop glaring at me.”

“I wasn’t aware that I was glaring.”
She came to sit down next to him.

“
A long time ago, I met a young girl here, and she read me a story from that journal in your hand. It was about a cat that liked to swim in the family pool.”

She drew away from him.
“It was you!” she whispered, her eyes widening in surprise. “You’re the blue-eyed man.”

“And you’re the pig
tailed girl.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “You’ve grown up on me. I didn’t recognize you without those blonde pigtails, though I did recently find the freckles.”

“
I can’t believe it,” she muttered under her breath. Her eyes searched his face with an avid interest that reminded him of the first time they met. “How did I not recognize you?”

“It’s been almost ten years. People change in that length of time.”

“True, but I would have thought that seeing you at college would have jolted my memory. Of course, I wasn’t expecting the blue-eyed man to be my college professor.” She looked away from him. “It’s funny when you think about it. I thought David might be the man I met here. He fit all the particulars with the exception that he couldn’t remember ever meeting a little girl. I was so disappointed.” Her puzzled glance came back to him. “But I never thought of you at all, even after you told me you grew up here.”

“I’m not sure how to take that
,” he murmured softly.

“
I associated you with Virginia, not Tybee Island. But now that I know – it makes sense.” Sabrina started to laugh and he looked at her curiously.

“Care to share your joke?”

“All this time I’ve been in love with the same person.”

“
So, you’re telling me that you’ve loved me since you were twelve. I think that’s significant.”

Sabrina smiled wistfully. “
I don’t know about significant, but it does seem to indicate consistency.”

He
smiled gently and reached for her hand. “It means you were meant for me.”

“Let’s don’t tease about it. I
’ve been punished enough for loving someone who doesn’t care for me.”

Meredith’s smile faded. “
Yes, you have. I can’t bear to think how much you’ve suffered. I’m determined to make it up to you.”

Sabrina
laughed a little. “I think Juliet might have something to say to that.”

“Juliet is my sister
; half-sister if you want to get technical. She doesn’t come into this at all.”

“Your
what?” she asked doubtfully. “I thought she was your girlfriend.”

“
I don’t know where you got that idea. I haven’t had a girlfriend in a while. Writing is a consuming profession.”

Sabrina felt
they were getting away from the point of the conversation. “What we’re feeling is a sense of nostalgia about something that happened years ago. The fact is nothing has really changed between us.”

Meredith shook
his head. “You’re wrong, Sabrina. I may not have your gift of expressing my feelings in words, but I can convince you quickly enough that what I feel for you is not nostalgia. I can’t explain how it happened; all I know is I haven’t been the same since I walked through the door of the inn and saw you sitting at the desk. Every conception I had about you has changed over the last few weeks. And the other day when I saw you holding my picture, all the pieces finally fell into place. I looked deep into my heart and found you, Sabrina, where you’ve been patiently waiting all along.”

With a convulsive sob, she
went into his arms. “Is this really happening?” she whispered.

He
cupped her chin and one long finger traced the outline of her quivering mouth. “Yes, my love, it is. I’m sorry that it took so long.”

His
kiss sent waves of feeling through her body. There was no comparison to the first kiss he’d given her. This was an affirmation of a love that was as warm, deep and passionate as hers. When he felt her trembling, Meredith drew back, but Sabrina clung to him. With a half-startled chuckle, he pulled her onto his lap.

“
Sabrina, you’ve been hiding from me. You’re not reserved at all.” Her cheeks bloomed with color and he laughed softly. “I don’t deserve the love you’ve so faithfully given me. Forgive me for being such a fool.”

“
I can never think of you as anything but wonderful. You stole my heart as a child, and I filled page after page in a journal. Then you stole my heart as a woman, and I wrote a love letter. I never dreamed I would be able to one day show you what you mean to me.”

“I still have
the letter.”

H
er eyes grew wide with wonder. “You kept it? Why?”

Meredith
looked uncomfortable and to Sabrina’s watchful eyes, a bit embarrassed. “I’m not entirely sure even now, but I’m glad I did. It’s the most beautiful description of love that I’ve ever read. The more I read it, the more I wanted to feel that way about someone. And now I do. You taught me what love is, Sabrina. You made the word mean something.”

S
he ran her fingers through his hair, loving its crisp softness against her skin. “I feel like I must be dreaming.”

He took her hand and drew it down to his mouth.
“If it’s a dream, I don’t want to wake up.” He kissed her then in the manner of a lover, with an intensity that was neither tentative nor hesitant. “If I’d only realized what I started when I kissed you here all those years ago. I thought you charming then, you’re irresistible now.”

“
Since this is where it all started, I think it only fitting that we get married here.”

Meredith
kissed the tip of each of her fingers, a spark of mischief entering his eyes. “I hadn’t actually reached the point of offering you marriage. I was trying to figure out if it was feasible to do so.”

Sabrina
drew his head down and brushed her mouth against his. “I’ll do what I can to convince you,” she whispered against his lips.

Meredith
’s eyes darkened and his arms tightened. “If you keep doing that, there won’t be a wedding. It will be an elopement. You do remember what I said about honeymoons, don’t you, Sabrina?”

What he saw in her eyes
brought a wickedly pleased grin to his face. Meredith didn’t wait for any more words. In his mind, they had wasted enough time talking. There were more enjoyable ways to show Sabrina how much he loved her.

The End

Other Books by Erica Matthews:

Falling for the Boss

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