Matilda Next Door - Kelly Hunter Page 0,47
was out of stock and wildly expensive.’
‘I likely didn’t buy it when it was wildly expensive.’
‘Good, cause I got you lilac socks instead. With sparkles.’
‘Evil, yet oddly reassuring. Feel free to wear them any time.’
‘Henry, do you think I’m unsophisticated and dumb?’
‘Excuse me?’ Where had that come from?
‘I understand your work only in the broadest terms, I’ll drink whatever wine you put in front of me, and thank you for it, but beyond that I can’t really discuss it. I watch the cricket at Christmas, but only under duress, so that’s it for sport. I watch next to no TV, but if I did I’ve a soft spot for whodunits and sleepy English village mysteries starring grumpy old inspectors. I’m trying to figure out what you might see in me.’ She reached for her wine and did a terrible job of trying to appear nonchalant. ‘That I don’t see.’
Her sense of self-worth had always been shaky as a young teen. He’d expected her to grow out of it.
Leaning across the counter, he drew her closer with the crooking of his finger, and then kissed her very, very thoroughly.
She smiled wryly, but her kisses had been as heartfelt as his. ‘Okay, so there’s that.’
He stole another kiss, because her lips were still right there. ‘Glad you agree. As to whether you can do the Times crossword in under three minutes, neither can I. I like the way you filled my grandparents’ freezer for them because you wanted to. I like the way you go to bat for my daughter and challenge my assumptions about why her mother did what she did. I like your honesty, your integrity, your generosity. Would you like me to go on?’
‘And on and on.’ She nodded vigorously.
‘You make me believe good people exist.’
‘Pretty words.’
‘I mean every one of them. And unless you want to watch me burn your dinner, I suggest kicking back with your wine and telling that baby about your busy day. I think she missed you.’
‘Missed grabbing my cake scrapers, more like, and then putting her sticky fist in her mouth. Hey, Rowan? You want to clap your hands? Show the big guy what you can do.’
She helped him get the food on the table in the end. Set the table, put some music on and rocked a little baby to sleep and then quizzed him about the things he loved about living in London, and this time he made the effort to remember those moments that had shaped his time there.
He took her outside beneath the sky afterwards, because he remembered what she’d once said about London and rooftops and chimneys, and he couldn’t offer her a rooftop, but the top of the concrete water tank, three-quarters buried in the ground with only a step up in order to be standing on it, made a fine dance floor and the Milky Way looked extra fine without clouds to hide its true form.
He wanted this. All of it. The woman, the instant family, the simple pleasure of dancing beneath the stars on a hot summer night after a meal he’d had a hand in preparing. No tailored suits to make him look the part. No takeaway meals eaten in a library chair while trying to convince himself he wasn’t unutterably lonely in London.
‘I missed you, all these years,’ he murmured and drew her close. ‘I’m not sure I realised how much.’
‘But you hardly called.’
‘Easier not to, or I’d have missed you more.’ He closed his eyes and took a leap of faith in her and in himself. ‘If I gave you a ring, would you wear it?’
She stiffened in his arms and he kept his arms loose and kept right on moving.
‘What kind of ring? One that would signify serious intentions, if I wore it on a certain finger?’
‘If you like.’
She searched his face as if suspecting a lie. ‘You don’t think we’re moving a little too … fast?’
Not after the nights they’d spent together in his bed and all the hefty conversations they’d already had. About having more babies, about parenthood, about learning to love. ‘Feels about right. We’ve known each other a long time.’
‘But our romance is very new.’
Clearly, he’d misread her enthusiasm for him. ‘Would you like me to backtrack? Because I can.’ There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for this woman. ‘Doesn’t have to be an engagement ring. You could wear it on any finger.’
‘But I want an engagement ring from you. I love that idea and all that