“Bless you. Lo siento.”
“No worries. I was just?—”
“Gotta go. Greta needs me. ’Bye.” She disconnected.
“You didn’t tell her.”
“She didn’t give me a chance. I’ll mention it while I’m there.”
“How long will it take?”
“At least a couple of hours.”
She picked up her dishes and carried them to the sink. “Then I think I’d better get dressed and go home.”
“Afraid so. Sorry.”
She smiled. “Not your fault. If it’s okay with you, I’ll let Claudie know this addition to the secret project will take hours.”
“Will it?”
“Heck, no.”
“Excellent.” He hesitated. “How do you want to play this with your family?”
“You mean about us?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll have to tell Claudie. She can read me too well. But she’ll keep it to herself if I ask her.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I’d rather not broadcast it, yet. It’ll come out soon enough, but let’s just enjoy the privacy while we can.”
“Works for me.” Pulling her close, he gave her a gentle kiss. “Manana.”
“Manana, mi cielo.”
His Spanish was limited mostly to swear words, but he was pretty sure that mi cielo meant my heaven. And how he loved hearing those words coming from Mila’s sweet lips. All things considered, one day of hell wasn’t such a high price to pay, after all.
Chapter Eight
Composing herself as best she could, Mila took off her coat and snow boots in the foyer. Breathing pine-scented air mingled with the aroma of cedar smoke helped. The combination of six trees of various sizes and a woodburning fireplace made the house smell delicious.
“You’re taking forever to come in,” Claudie called out from the living room. “Is there a problem?”
“No.” Mila took one more deep breath. “Just enjoying how nice the house smells.” She walked into the cozy living room she shared with her sister.
Claudie’s crochet needle flashed in the glow from the beehive fireplace as she worked on a Christmas tree skirt. She’d pulled her thick brown hair into a ponytail because she insisted it helped her concentrate when her hair was away from her face.
She glanced up. “Well?”
Mila couldn’t seem to do anything but stand there and grin. There were no words.
Her sister leaped up and laid aside her needlework. “You two did it!”
“We did.”
