After running a circuit of the island, Rome paused for breath at the top of the hill. He stood with his hands on his hips as he looked down on Hope Island. The view was incredible from up here, he could see the whole island, from the tree-lined Mistletoe Cove to Blueberry Bay all the way over on the other side. Over in the western corner of the island, the white-domed roof of the observatory glinted in the darkness. The moonlit-covered sea stretched out in front of him and the lights of the town sparkled in the darkness.

He looked up at the endless starlit canopy. There was so little light pollution on the island that the stars seemed so much brighter here. He had studied books about astronomy when he was younger and he could identify most of the constellations in the sky. He could see Ursa Major and Minor, Cassiopeia, Hercules and Pegasus, Draco – which looked more like a serpent than a dragon – and several of the constellations that made up the zodiac signs. Although he held no stock in stars trillions of miles away having any kind of influence over someone’s life, he still liked to pick them out. It was one of the things he’d once thought he could impress women with; if they were into horoscopes he thought he would point out the relevant star signs in the sky. Sadly women didn’t really like geeks and when he started explaining about light years to them, he could see their eyes glazing over with boredom.

He focussed his attention back on the town. He loved to run at this time of night, when the rest of the island was tucked up in their homes for the night. There was barely a soul to be seen apart from a few stragglers coming out of the pub and going home. It was so quiet and peaceful and it allowed him time to think. He had been doing a lot of that lately, mostly about what he wanted from his life.

Things were going great right now. He had a job he loved and thanks to his best friend, Freya Greene, the company was a huge success. His family were happy, his little sister was in love, which was something he’d never thought would happen, and Eden’s shop seemed to be busy and thriving. But his personal life was… was it fair to say it was lacking? That didn’t seem right when he had a best friend who he thought the world of. He and Freya spent almost every spare second together and there was no one he enjoyed spending time with as much as he loved being with her. She made him laugh, they could talk for hours and never draw breath. He had gone out on barely any dates recently because he would much rather spend time with her. She made him really happy but he knew in his heart there was something missing from his life. He missed being in a proper relationship.

After Paige had died he hadn’t wanted another relationship; had been too fearful to fall in love again because the pain of losing her had been too much to bear. He had guarded his heart and that had worked just fine for him. But recently he had been thinking that maybe it was time to move on from the past.

His sister Bella had been equally protective over her heart, although for completely different reasons. After her parents had abandoned her as a child and she was adopted and raised by his parents, her aunt and uncle, she had shied away from falling in love in case she was rejected all over again. But she had opened her heart to Isaac earlier that year, she had taken a risk and it had paid off; he had never seen her so deliriously happy in his whole life before. He wanted that too, that wonderful feeling of being in love again.

His thoughts turned to Freya again as they had many times over the last few months. If he was honest, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He wasn’t sure how he would describe his feelings for Freya. He knew they were far from just being platonic, they never had been. But they were so different to how he’d felt for Paige. His time with Paige had been fuelled by sex, a passion that was fierce and urgent and demanding. It had been six years since she’d died and his memories of her were fading. They’d had a good laugh, they’d talked about the future in that vague way where neither of them really knew what the future would hold for them. They’d spoken about when they would get married but never about having children as if they both knew that was way too serious for what they had. That was telling in itself. Rome had always wanted children. But their conversations had never ventured into anything that could be considered deep. Looking back he wasn’t sure if they’d ever really had anything more than amazing sex.

His feelings for Freya went way beyond that. He cared for her so deeply, just the thought of her made him smile, the fact that he wanted to spend all his time with her and missed her when they were apart spoke volumes. He craved her too. He wanted to kiss her, dreamed about making love to her and it scared him to death. If he was honest with himself, he’d always had these feelings for Freya but had never been willing to do anything about it. A fear of getting hurt again, a fear of ruining the beautiful friendship they shared had stopped him from taking it any further. He had denied his feelings to anyone who asked and for the longest time denied them to himself. He knew he had to talk to her about it but he had been putting it off for some time. Maybe it was time to take a risk. Though if he did take that risk, what if she didn’t feel the same way? He had no idea what women were thinking and, while there had been many looks or comments from Freya over the last few years that suggested she had feelings for him too, he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t just projecting what he wanted to see.

Down in the town, he spotted Bella’s distinctive red hair as she walked alongside Isaac back towards his house overlooking Blueberry Bay. He knew that the girls had spent the evening together and if Bella had left it probably meant the evening had come to an end, and Freya would be leaving Eden’s soon too. His heart leapt that he might see her again and he shook his head. He was behaving like a schoolboy with a silly crush.

He scanned the houses until he found Eden’s cottage with her distinctive pink front door and, sure enough, the door opened and he saw the glow of gold as Freya’s hair caught in the moonlight. She hugged Eden goodbye and stepped out onto the street.

He ran down the hill and headed towards the high street where he knew Freya would be heading too as she made her way home. Once he was down in the town, he lost sight of her and, as he moved into the high street, he wasn’t sure if he was now ahead of her or behind. He cast around the deserted street and then saw her staring through one of the shop windows. As he moved closer, he realised it was the jewellery shop and she was staring at the engagement and wedding rings.

Freya was probably the least romantic out of the three girls and he didn’t take her for someone who had fairy tale dreams of love and romance. But of course she would want a happy ending with someone too. He suddenly remembered that tomorrow would have been her second anniversary of marrying Jake and maybe she was thinking about that. How different would her life have been if she hadn’t walked in on her fiancé cheating on her a few days before her wedding? Would they have stayed together, would they have been happy?

He swallowed the sudden lump of emotion in his throat. How different would his life have been if he hadn’t met her? Would he still have been grieving over Paige? Even if he had managed to snap out of his period of mourning, his life would have been empty without Freya. The thought of not having her in his life made him feel sick. She had given him so much. He had simply existed before, but now he felt alive. She brought so much energy to his life that he knew he would miss her if she was gone.

She suddenly caught sight of him in the reflection of the window and turned round to face him, a huge smile filling her face.

‘Hey,’ he said, moving closer.

‘Hey.’

He gestured to the window. ‘Choosing your engagement ring?’

Freya laughed, completely unabashed. ‘A girl can dream.’

‘Would you really get married after what happened with Jake?’

‘Of course. Just because the last guy was a complete tit, doesn’t mean the next one will be. I would never be scared of falling in love again. Real love is too precious and wonderful to hide away from.’

He looked at her. She had as much right to be fearful of love as he did. Love could hurt you in so many different ways. Rejection, unrequited love, affairs, death. Being in love was so fraught with possible problems but his best friend didn’t see it that way. She was braver than he was.

He stepped closer to the window and peered in. ‘Which would you choose if you were to get engaged again?’

‘Traditionally, it’s the man who would do the choosing. Which one would you choose for me?’ Freya challenged.

He chuckled as he looked down at her. Her warm caramel brown eyes were like whisky; flecked with gold they sparkled in the streetlights. With her white-blonde hair, streaked with blue, she was uniquely beautiful.

Realising he was staring, he glanced back into the window at all the diamonds. They glittered and twinkled in the light from the street, but there was nothing special about these rings.

‘None of these.’

‘Really?’

‘They’re not unique enough.’

He moved to her other side to look at the antique rings, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, but there was nothing that grabbed his attention. Getting the right engagement ring was a lot harder than he thought.

But then he saw it. At the very bottom of the display, resting in the palm of a plaster-cast hand, was an opal ring. The shoulders of the ring were encrusted with diamonds, but the gold-looking opal was a startling array of colours. He squatted down to get a closer look at it, watching the facets of colour change as he moved. The ring looked like it was on fire as it glowed gold in the streetlights.

‘This one.’

He stood up and looked at Freya.

‘I love opals. They’re so unique and beautiful,’ Freya said, softly, looking up at him, and he sensed something had shifted between them.

‘They’re quite rare, especially ones this colour,’ Rome said.

Freya looked back at the ring. ‘I love it.’

‘Although if I’m honest, I think I would make you an engagement ring from fused glass. I would choose the perfect colours and tones and make something that no one else in the world had, something that celebrates how exceptional and special you really are.’

She stared up at him, her eyes wide with surprise.

‘But it depends whether you’re a girl that prefers the expense of rubies and diamonds or someone who would appreciate that, although the ring is only made from glass, it’s something that was made specifically with you in mind.’

Freya swallowed. ‘If it was the right man, it wouldn’t matter if it was a cheap plastic ring from the inside of a cracker, because marrying him would be the only thing that mattered. I love the idea of having a ring made just for me.’

Rome suddenly realised how close they were standing. He took a step back. What was he doing? Choosing engagement rings with his best friend? They’d never even kissed and suddenly they had taken a big leap. It felt intimate and terrifying all at once.

‘Let me walk you home.’

‘Don’t be silly, it’s completely the opposite direction from your house.’

Rome shrugged. ‘It’s not far. And you never know what unsavoury characters are hanging around at this time of night.’

Freya laughed, knowing as well as he did that unsavoury characters on Hope Island were as unlikely as aliens coming down and kidnapping her. ‘I know. There I was looking at rings and then I see this creepy guy staring at me.’

Rome laughed as she fell in at his side and started walking back towards her flat.

‘He was breathing heavily, obviously some right pervert.’

Rome nudged her and she nudged him right back.

They fell into an easy silence and as her hand briefly brushed against his, he had an overwhelming urge to suddenly slide his fingers through hers and hold her hand.

‘Did you have a good night with Eden and Bella?’ he asked, trying to distract himself from how close their fingers were. He couldn’t decide whether he was walking really close to her or if she was walking really close to him. They seemed to gravitate towards each other.

‘Yes, I love your sisters.’

‘They love you,’ Rome said, honestly. ‘All my family do.’

‘What did you do with your night?’ Freya asked.

‘Reading, went for a run.’

She looked up at him, a smirk on her lips. ‘No hot date?’

Rome shrugged. ‘It feels like a waste of my time.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I want something more than just sex.’

‘You never give these girls a chance – you go out once, twice if they’re lucky, and you never see them again. Some of them could be something more if you’d let them.’

He shook his head. ‘I’m looking for someone special.’

‘What is it that you’re looking for?’

‘Someone who can make me laugh, someone I can talk to and who I enjoy spending time with.’

She went quiet next to him and he realised he had pretty much described what he had with her. Had she recognised that too? He looked up to see that they were approaching the front door that led up to her flat above the shop.

She put the key in the lock and then stepped inside, turning back to face him.

‘I’m very much looking forward to our dinner tomorrow night.’

He smiled. ‘I am too. Don’t be late for work tomorrow. I know what that commute is like.’

‘Yes, those thirteen stairs are a killer.’

He grinned. ‘Goodnight, Freya.’

‘Goodnight.’

He waited for her to close the door and then he turned back towards his own house. What was he doing?