“I’d need to call Val, but let’s do it. I’d love to see more of England.”
His face lights up like it’s Christmas. “Really? Are you sure?”
“Yes, but let me call Val.”
Val was, as I suspected, more than eager for me to stay. If I didn’t know better, I would think I’d been ruining their vacation with my presence.
I give Alex the good news as he holds his hand out to help me into the gondola we will have to ourselves. He grins and keeps my hand as we follow the gondolier’s instructions to our seats. I sit first, followed by Alex, who rocks the long, narrow boat with his size.
“Easy now, I don’t want to end up in the water,” I tease.
“I’ve seen what an excellent swimmer you are.” He gives me a meaningful look, and it makes me think he is remembering the night at his house when he almost kissed me. Or I thought he almost kissed me. A kiss may never have been the plan, if there was one.
Just the thought of it has my heart picking up speed.
“This is beautiful, isn’t it? I love when there’s orange in the sky,” I say, if only to distract myself. I close my eyes for a moment, enjoying the feel of the air moving around me as we begin to pick up speed.
“It really is.”
Wisps of clouds fill the sky, streaked with corals and pinks.I’m studying it carefully when I sense Alex’s eyes on me and turn to him.
“I can see all the colors of your hair in this light. It’s like it was made for the sunset.”
I begin to make a flippant comment, but the look in his eyes is so earnest that I can’t toss his compliment out of the window.
“Thank you,” I whisper. Then drop my hand to trail in the water, then quickly remove it. It’s very cold. “It’s honestly really nice to get compliments on my hair. I’ve struggled with it my whole life. My mom certainly didn’t teach me how to take care of curls. It’s only been in the past year or so that I’ve found the right products and routine to make it look nice like this. Of course, depending on the weather it can still go wild on me at times.”
“Tell me about your parents.”
“I don’t want to ruin this boat ride.”
Alex only nods, looking mildly concerned.
“I’ll tell you during our ride to Dover. Okay?”
“Only if you don’t mind sharing. It’s not my business; I just want to know you a bit better.” He shrugs, and once again the earnestness in his eyes almost has me telling him my entire life story. But I keep my mouth closed for the time being because those words shouldn’t be spoken in the presence of such a sunset.
“This is the Old Weavers House,” our gondolier points out, pulling us out of our conversation. “As you can see, the sign says it was built in 1500, but there is evidence it could be even older than that.”
“Wow,” I whisper to myself as I look at the creamy building with dark wood accents. It reminds me of the buildings inShrek.
I look toward Alex and find him studying the building and take a minute to study him. He said the light was enhancing my hair, but it’s making him glow. I’m glad he’s distracted. His black hair has slight blue undertones in this light, and his eyes are an even more striking blue. It’s like they had been designed to match. Gosh, he’s a beautiful man.
“Like something you see?” He smiles as he turns his eyes to me.
“There was a spider on your face,” I answer in all seriousness.
“Why didn’t you knock it off?” His eyebrows raise, playing along.
“I’m very strong. I could have hurt you. And let’s face it, that’s your money-maker. I wouldn’t have wanted to leave you without a way to make your way in this world. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you became destitute because I marred your face beyond recognition.”
“Marred beyond recognition? Wow, you really are strong. But it sounds like a pretty good plan. I’ll just move and livewith you.”
I snort a laugh, and I’ve never realized how often I do that until I got around this Englishman who grew up in a fancy family. I did it multiple times when we had dinner at his house and boy did it feel out of place.
“You’ll be welcome with me should you ever become destitute.”
“Thank you.” Alex places a hand over his heart and nods solemnly.
