Then he made a decision.
It might be too soon but he didn’t give a f**k.
They’d lost twenty years, he’d lost a wife, his children had lost their mother and, as far as he could tell, Elle had lived a life where she had very little that was meaningful to lose.
Life was too short.
There was no time to waste.
He went to the kitchen, found a bottle of red wine Elle had bought and put it on the counter with the corkscrew. He was taking down two glasses when she walked down the stairs.
“Where’s Jason?” she asked, her eyes on the wine, her expression guarded.
“Early night,” Prentice answered, grabbing the glasses by their stem and upending them then wrapping his hand around the neck of the bottle and nabbing the corkscrew.
“Prentice,” Elle said as he walked up to her, “we need to talk.”
Good, she didn’t intend to delay in telling him what was on her mind.
That worked for him because neither did he.
Obviously, Prentice had changed his mind about talking that day; it was just that he now also had something to say.
“Aye,” he agreed.
“I…” she started but stopped when he threw an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the stairs. She began again when they hit the stairs, “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to talk,” he said, resolutely moving her up the stairs.
“But where?”
“The best place in the house.”
She fell silent.
At the top of the stairs, he directed her toward his rooms.
Her body jolted.
“Pren –”
His arm left her shoulders and the hand with the bottle went to the small of her back. He pushed her into his sitting room.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she whispered when he closed the door behind them.
“Why no’?” he asked, guiding her through the small sitting room into the bedroom, putting everything on his bureau and opening a drawer.
“Because…” she began then paused then went on, “Can we talk in your study?”
He walked up to her with a pair of his thick socks.
“No,” he held out the socks, gentled his voice and ordered “Put those on, baby.”
She stared at the socks but didn’t move. He lifted her hand, set the socks in her palm and walked away.
“Socks?” she asked his back as he opened another drawer.
“Put them on,” he ordered.