Her fingers settle over my heart as I imagine it:
Opening up our home and our lives to kids like we once were.
The difficulties and the challenges we’d face.
But none of those beat the difficulties and the challenges the kids themselves face in the lives they need protecting from.
‘Imagine if someone had swept in and rescued us…’ she says, her head travelling down the same sad road.
I tuck my fingers under her chin. ‘But then we might never have met, Baby Girl.’
She gives me a soft smile. ‘We also wouldn’t have the experience that makes us right for this.’
‘It’s a hell of a Catch-22.’ I stroke my thumb along the groove beneath her bottom lip. ‘How long have you been thinking about this?’
‘A little while,’ she admits, shifting until she’s fully on top of me and pressing a kiss to my jaw.
‘It would mean we’d have to travel less,’ I say.
‘Good,’ she whispers against my skin. ‘I’m tired of jetting around.’
‘We’d need a house with a garden.’
‘I’ve been feeling green-fingered lately,’ she says. ‘You’ve seen the veg patch Lottie and I are growing.’
I huff. What started as a way of giving Trouble some undivided attention – a chance to burn off steam while Theo, Sadie, and baby Tom did their thing, usually napping – has turned into a full-blown project.
‘We’d need to work less.’
‘I feel an early retirement on the cards…’
‘That,’ I murmur, rolling her gently beneath me, ‘is your best idea yet.’
Her breath catches as I cage her in, bracing my elbows either side of her. Her hands slide up my neck, fingers tangling in my hair. Even after everything we just did, I’m already hard for her.
‘I’m under no illusions, Ax. Nothing about this will be easy.’
‘The most rewarding things in life rarely are…’
And she knows I mean her. Loving her all those years and keeping it trapped inside. Unspoken. Never daring to dream, until the dream found me.
‘So… what do you think?’ she whispers, her eyes glittering up at me.
I press my forehead to hers, letting my weight settle just enough that she feels me – all of me. Loving. Wanting. Always.
‘I think—’ I kiss her deep, slide inside her slow, savouring her tiny gasp. ‘I couldn’t love you more than I do right now.’
Her fingers tighten at the back of my neck. ‘So… is that a yes?’
I pull back just enough to look into her eyes – my wife, my whole damn world.
‘What do you think, Baby Girl?’
