His grey eyes darkened. “Fine, but Maia’s going to be keeping a closer eye on you until this project is done. Don’t complain.”
“Wasn’t gonna.” I let him kiss me again. I leaned into it, enjoying the intimacy that I’d missed over the last few days. “So, are you going to tell me what you know about my father or do I need to guess?”
“I know almost nothing. I didn’t have Elliot look that deep back then. Maybe I should have. Three years ago he was living up North, staying in a bedsit of some kind and working construction when he could find the work. He wasn’t married, no children. No other children, I mean.”
“What about rehab? He told Natalie that he’d been in rehab for alcoholism.”
“I don’t know. As I said, I didn’t have Elliot dig too much. I can ask him to, if you’d like?”
“No. At least not yet.” I was too tired to think about my father anymore. “Thank you for sending Keira, by the way. She said to tell you that she likes your plane.”
Alfie snorted. “Did seeing her help you?”
“Very much. She even offered to design my wedding dress.”
His eyes widened. “You told her?”
“I did. And Natalie too. It’s official now.” I couldn’t tell if he was as nervous as I was. He bit back a smile. “You gave me amonth to tell them, I did it in two weeks, more or less. I’ve got to get some sort of reward for that.”
He lifted me suddenly. I wrapped my legs around his waist, holding on. “I’m going to reward you all night.”
“You’d better,” I grinned. “But first I want you to walk with me.”
He frowned a sulky frown but let me down anyway. I slipped my hand into his and led him out of my work tent. The early evening was bright with summer. Birds chirped overhead and the breeze was cool on my skin, blowing the sweat of the day away.
“So Keira’s designing your dress?” he said as we walked. “I want to speak to her. Give her my input.”
I snorted. “And I’m sure she’ll laugh in your face. No input, Alfie. I’m not giving mine either. Let her do her thing.” He frowned again. “You know, most men couldn’t care less what kind of wedding dress their fiance wears.”
“I like to dress you. I like imagining your body and how it would look in what I choose for it. Dresses, lingerie, ropes.” He said ‘ropes’ as casually as saying ‘cup of tea’.
“Compromise? Let Keira design my dress. You can choose something for me to wear on our wedding night when it’s just us.”
His face lit up. “Deal. I think I’m learning to like compromises.”
Alfie stopped walking when he realised where I’d led us. The collection of trees protecting our garden from outside eyes. The top of the grass steps leading down into our little haven.
“Have you been down here yet?” I asked him.
“No.”
“You don’t want to see it?”
“I do.” He looked conflicted and I waited patiently for him to tell me what was bothering him. “I used to have nightmaresabout this place. After we broke up the first time. I kept dreaming about you being here, so happy, but then as soon as I set foot in it my touch would start to poison everything. The bleeding hearts became barbed vines that wrapped around you, cutting you. In my nightmares you’d scream at me, begging me to stop hurting you. I couldn’t get to you to help you.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why it still bothers me so much.”
“It was just a nightmare. This is real life and you can get to me now. It won’t look like your nightmares, I promise. But you have to take off your shoes first,” I said, kicking off my own boots.
“I’ll get dirty feet.”
“Yes.” I tried not to laugh at him. “That’s the point.” I knelt down and untied his shoes myself. I peeled off his socks and left them behind. “Come on.”
He squeezed my hand tighter as we walked down the steps, through the flower wheels decorated with honeysuckle and jasmine. When we reached the bottom he stilled, taking it all in.
“What do you think?”
“It’s almost exactly how I imagined it.”
“Almost? What’s missing?”
