We won’t be alone at the villa for more than a few days. Everyone is coming to visit. The whole family—one that’s become mine, too. I love his mother, with all her eccentricities, and she seems to love me. And I love Nora and Amber. I’ve even come to feel at home with his guy friends, and they’ve accepted me completely. It feels like I have brothers.
For years, I felt adrift. Like I was searching for something I couldn’t quite name. But now it feels like I’ve dropped anchor.
I walk down to the fountain, where Egeria is waiting in her usual spot. The water flows happily from her urn. She’s always here, guarding the villa, when we are not.
I pick a few roses from the nearby bushes and lay them on the fountain’s stone edge for her.
Footsteps sound behind me on the gravel. “You’re giving her flowers?”
“Yes.” I sit down beside the roses. The stone is warmbeneath me, even through my dress. “She’s this place’s patron saint, in a way.”
Rafe’s eyes are warm. They’re often warm these days. “Remember when you swam in here? I think that’s when I realized I was in real trouble.”
I dip a hand in the cool water. “I think you might be the only man seduced by being deliberately annoyed.”
“Somehow I doubt that.” He sits down next to me, and June rushes past us, like she wants to make sure we’re still here before rushing towards the lavender hedges.
“She was a famous advisor to kings, you know,” I say. “So I think it’s fitting. I’m an advisor to you.”
“I am not a king, whatever the newspapers like to say,” Rafe says. “And you are far more than an advisor. If you want to use that metaphor, you’re a queen.”
“I’m a wife, at least.”
“Yes. My wife.” He tips my head back. His hands are soft on my cheek. “You’ve been invaluable these last few months. You’ve charmed every single person in my company, you know?”
“They’re notcharmed.”
“They are. Don’t play modest with me. That was your goal, and you succeeded.”
My smile breaks out in full. “I like them. I never thought I would, you know. But it turns out Maison Valmont isn’t the big bad wolf, after all.”
“Not with you,” Rafe says. There are no bags under his eyes, and no hidden bruises, either. He’s slept much better the last few months.
We’ve been going to therapy together for the last six months. We leave home together, stopping for a coffee and a croissant at our favorite place, before walking a few blocks to where our therapists work.
Me, for my grief and panic attacks. Him, for his guilt and his pain.
We spend an hour apart and then walk back home, hand in hand.
He hadn’t liked the therapy at first. But he’s nothing if not a disciple of progress and efficiency, and even he hadn’t been able to argue against the positive effects of talking things through.
Rafe fits his hand to the side of my face. “Are you happy?” he asks.
I can’t stop smiling. It’s such a him thing to ask, when I feel like the answer is patently obvious. “Rafe…”
“Are you, darling?” His green eyes search mine. “Because I know this year has been a lot of work. With Mather & Wilde, and the changes, and all the travel. We now have June, yes. But it’s also been?—”
“Rafe.” I reach out to grip the collar of his linen button-down. “If I wasn’t, do you think I would be silent about it?”
The furrow between his eyes smooths out. “No. You wouldn’t.”
“We’re great at arguing.”
“We are.” His lips curve, showing that dimple I will never stop loving. “You like a fast life.”
“I’m built for it, just like you. And I won’t resent you for it. I will argue with you about an issue long before that.”
“Good.” He reaches down to grab my legs. He pulls them onto his lap and wraps an arm around my waist. “You tell me if that ever changes, because the only non-negotiable in my life is you.”
