‘What for? It’s Sunday. We could stay in bed all day.’ He wrapped his arms around her waist, wondering whether he should mention where he was going with Zdenka later that afternoon. Should he take Anna with him?
‘It’s half-past eleven.’
‘You’re no fun,’ he grumbled, smoothing a hand over her hair.
She giggled. ‘We’ve already had seconds this morning.’
‘And what’s wrong with thirds?’
‘I’ll go and put some coffee on.’ She gave him a quick smirk, knowing that she could always bribe him with a caffeine fix.
He managed to steal one last kiss before she slipped out of bed, grabbed her robe and left the room. With a contented sigh, he flopped back into the pillows, hands behind his head, and gave in to another luxuriating stretch before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Clothes were strewn across the floor on his side of the bed. His eyes fell on the square bottle of Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay body lotion Anna had always used on her soft silky skin before she slid into bed beside him. He lifted the bottle, squirted a tiny bit on the back of his hand and brought it up to his nose. The familiar scent almost floored him, and he had to take a moment to steady himself against the kaleidoscope whirl of memories that hurled themselves at him. He put a hand out to hold onto the shelf beside the bed.
For a moment he stood calming himself, taking long slow breaths in and careful breaths out. This time would be different. He would take things steadily, show Anna that he was reliable and that they had a future together. Maybe they’d married too quickly. He’d seized the moment, perhaps been too impulsive, and Anna, rather than believe that it was because he loved her so much he couldn’t help himself, had thought it quixotic. Much as his family had. When their marriage broke up, his brother Raph, the sensible one, had told him he’d been ‘rash and foolhardy’.
Second time around he was going to be much better prepared. There’d be no surprises. No one could accuse him of not thinking things through properly. He frowned. He’d been thinking of taking Anna with him this afternoon but maybe it was better if he didn’t. Perhaps he should wait. He wanted to have a conversation with Raph, to prove that he’d thought this through properly and to ask for his support and advice.
This was the first place he was going to look at. He didn’t want to be accused of being ‘rash and foolhardy’ again. It would be better to talk to his brother and see if the place had potential before he said anything to Anna.
* * *
‘I was going to suggest going out for a walk,’ said Anna, pulling up her jeans, ‘but it looks cold out.’ She gestured at the low grey clouds filling the sky and the lingering fingers of frost around the edge of the window frame. ‘Maybe a day for a fire and film.’ She gave him a smile, conjuring up memories of Sundays after late shifts, when they hadn’t bothered dressing and had watchedAvengersfilms together. ‘I haven’t seenThorfor a while.’ Now her smile was teasing.
‘What is it with Chris Hemsworth?’ Leo grinned at her as he sat in his towel on the end of her bed. ‘He’s really nothing special, you know.’
Anna laughed. ‘And you are?’ It was a conversation they’d had a time or two before.
‘I’m here, that’s the difference.’
‘You are.’ She leaned over and kissed him. ‘I guess I can make do.’
He kissed her back. ‘Unfortunately, I have an appointment this afternoon.’ Even as he said the words, he regretted them. They didn’t sound like him and even though it was the truth, it sounded like an evasion.
‘Oh, right,’ said Anna. ‘Not to worry. Looks like I’ll have Chris all to myself.’
‘I arranged it the other day. I’m meeting someone.’ Now it sounded defensive or as if he was making excuses.
‘Leo. I know we live together but that’s by accident rather than design. You still have your own life. Us sleeping together doesn’t change that.’ She flicked a glance towards the open door of her bedroom, then towards his.
That little sliver of panic sliced into him. ‘Sleeping together?’ He couldn’t keep the sharpness out of the question.
Anna caught her lip between her teeth and lifted her shoulders. He noticed that she deliberately didn’t say anything.
He held out a hand and took hers in his, linking his fingers through hers. ‘It’s more than that. A lot more.’
‘A lot more,’ she said, nodding in agreement with a gentle smile, and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Relief shimmered through him.
‘I was thinking about moving some clothes into a drawer here.’ He needed to make it clear that there was some permanence to this. For him this was the future.
‘Good idea. Then you don’t sit there naked while I’m dressing.’ She nodded at the towel around his waist.
‘Oh, I like watching you get dressed.’
‘Creep,’ she teased. ‘And we don’t live in each other’s pockets. I’m going to curl up and watch a film, although I might get you to light the stove and then you can go out and face the cold while I stay here nice and toasty.’
While part of Leo wanted to explain where he was going, the other half wanted to keep things under wraps for the time being. He didn’t want to say anything until he had some firm plans.
‘Perhaps when I get back, we could open a bottle of wine, get out the cards, play strip poker and see where the night goes.’
