“They’re both famous country singers from the US, and they’ve managed to stay married for decades in spite of their fame. They say their secret is that they never spend more than three nights apart. Now, I’m not saying that we would have to follow theexactsame rule as them—I know sometimes your work will take you away for several days at a time and mine will too. It’s just an example, more than anything.”
“So, not three nights then?” he asks. “What are you thinking, maybe eight?”
“Sorry, no, I didn’t mean for us to pick a set number of nights. I know that likely wouldn’t be possible. But maybe we should come to some sort of agreement abouthow we decidewhich opportunities we take and which ones we turn down. I’d like to make those decisions together, especially if it involves one of us having to fly off somewhere.”
“Okay, deal,” he says, leaning in and giving me a kiss.
Mmm. Lovely. This is going well, isn’t it? I’m so glad I brought it up. “Perfect. So, we won’t say yes to any more trips without discussing it first.”
“Exactly, from now on, we check with each other.” He smiles while he places the cheesecake in front of each of us.
“Yum,” I say, picking up my fork.
Will digs into his dessert, and as his first bite is on his way to his lips, he says, “Glad that’s settled.”
“Me too.” I let out a sigh of relief. “We just have to get better at communicating with each other, is all.”
He swallows, then nods. “Absolutely, it’s probably more of a habit than anything, right? Neither of us are used to being accountable to someone else.”
“Well, you less so than me, really. I’m accountable to an entire kingdom,” I say with a light chuckle.
“Right. I guess it’s somethingIneed to work on then,” Will says, his smile fading. “Although now that I think about it, I did try to get a hold of you several times before I agreed to go to London, but you didn’t pick up so I had to make a decision.”
“True, true,” I answer, feeling a chilly breeze at my back. “But that’s obviously not a normal situation—having someone call you at the last minute like that. So it won’t be a problem in the future.”
“Exactly,” he says, then he narrows his eyes a bit. “But just to be clear, you do agree it was the right call for me to go, right? The commercial was a big step forward for us as far as being able to be financially independent.”
I lift my first bite to my lips, then set it down again. “Sorry, darling, I’m a bit confused. How exactly?”
“Well, it was an incredible opportunity for me, and I’m now in a position where I need to earn a lot more money than I have in the past,” he says, clearly trying to sound casual, even though I know I’ve touched a nerve. “These types of chances don’t come along very often, believe me. In fact, I’ve been waiting for years for something like that, so when it happened, I had to take it.”
He slices into his cake with the side of his fork, then scoops up some blueberry sauce.
“But sweetheart, we have money.”
Will pauses, midbite. “To be fair,wedon’t have money. Your family has money and theirs comes with all sorts of rules and obligations and strings attached. Mine will mean freedom and independence and us living exactly the way we want to for the rest of our lives.”
Oh dear. He definitely thinks I’m going full Megxit. I set my fork down, the buttery lobster suddenly sitting heavy in my stomach.
He gives me a hopeful smile. “I want to start a life with you, Belle. I want to give you everything you ever dreamed of—adventure and freedom and the ability to make your own decisions and spend your days doing whatever you want. It’s why I went to London in the first place. And Italy, and then to Thailand. And to be honest, if I had gone back to London with Kenneth, I’d be well on my way to having my own outdoor gear line, which would have set us up for life. But I knew you needed me, so I rushed back.”
“He offered you your own line of outdoor gear?” I ask, my heart pounding in my chest.
Shrugging, Will says, “Yeah, but I would have had to spend at least a month in England hashing out the details and there was no way I was going to do that to you, not with how bad things have been going since the show started.”
“Oh, Will, I don’t know what to say.” I reach for his warm hand and squeeze it. “That must have been such a disappointment for you.”
“It’s okay. I always land on my feet,” he says, lifting my hand and brushing his lips across my knuckles. “Besides, ABN has offered me a three-year contract which will mean steady money. It’s not ‘buy our own castle’ cash, but we could probably afford something nice.”
“Was the deal from Abernathy a ‘buy our own castle’ deal?” I ask, even though part of me doesn’t want to know.
“Pretty much, but there wouldn’t have been any point in having all that cash if I didn’t have you to help me spend it?” He leans in and gives me a kiss, and I know, without a doubt, that this man loves me.
And I love him so much. “I can’t believe you gave that up for me.”
“You’re worth it. I’d give up my life for you.” He pulls me onto his lap, and we snog each other senseless for a few minutes, but as we’re kissing, there’s a tiny voice in my brain screaming that I’m kissing him under false pretenses. I’m letting him think he’s going to be the one bringing home the bacon when in fact, I can more than afford to buy the entire pig farm.
The voice grows louder now, telling my lady bits to cool down because he may have turned down the deal to rush to my side, but that’s not where he ended up, is it? Lady bits are begging brain to shut up, but brain refuses, and, in fact, starts shouting.
