He lowered the jewelry box. “Perhaps you need time to capture and write them down.”
She grinned like a schoolgirl. “I’ll have to think on it.”
“I hope you don’t think too long.” Standing, he brushed bits of dead grass off his knees. “I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life without you.”
And she wanted to spend her remaining years, however many God gave her, with him too.
“We’d have to...” She paused. Her novels usually ended with a proposal, the hero and heroine willing to overcome any obstacle that might keep them apart, but hurdles riddled the path to marriage for her and Simon. Would he move here or would she go to Winfield? And Hattie—she would be furious. “There are so many details to consider.”
“We’ll work through them together.”
“I worry about my aunt.”
Simon reached for her gloved hand and wrapped it in his. “She thinks I’m the enemy, doesn’t she?”
Would Simon turn stoic again, like he’d done last month when she hadn’t spoken in his defense? “She’s concerned that you’ll take me to Winfield.”
He kissed the top of her hand. “We’ll find a way, Olivia.”
“Perhaps you could teach at a university near here? We could stay in Haven House together.”
“So you’re considering it?”
She smiled at him. “I’m considering my options.”
“You do love this place, don’t you?” he said, glancing up the hill.
She nodded. “Hattie is settled here, and I fear I am equally set in my ways.”
Her heart would be divided in her care for Simon and the pain in leaving both Hattie and this home that she and Graham built. The cemetery that harbored those she loved. Her lake and flowers and church. “My roots go down deep in Catawba.”
He took her hand. “We will grow new roots together.”
“I’d like that.”
“We could sell your house here,” he said slowly as if testing the water. “My home has a library and plenty of room for you to write. Or we could buy a new place together near Winfield with a separate residence for Hattie. I want you to gain something good in our marriage, not regret giving this up.”
“It would be good, wouldn’t it?”
He pulled her close and kissed her lips for the first time, merely a peck, most proper. Then he paused as if waiting for her to object.
She had no objection.
The years melted between them in his second kiss, two forks of water melding into a river. As he held her, she could think of no other reason why she wouldn’t leave Catawba for a love like this.
“For the rest of our lives, Olivia,” he whispered into her ear.
Those words sounded like paradise as something new awakened inside her.
“I want this to work, Simon. I just have to think. My mind... it’s all awhirl.”
And something else squirmed in her gut, unsettled, as Hattie’s doubts rattled in her head. Trying to dampen the joy.
Age wasn’t a factor anymore, not when their hearts had been knitting themselves together. Simon cared for her, enough to drive the six hours across Pennsylvania to visit. Cared enough to buy a dazzling ring and commit to spending the rest of his life with her.
What was wrong with enjoying his company in marriage, something she’d never thought she would experience again after Graham died?
A deeper love would develop between them, she had no doubt. The kind that came from sharing a bed, certainly, but after her many years of marriage, she had no delusions about that alone uniting a husband and wife. The deepest love came from sharing the day-to-day woes of growing old together. A bond from shared jokes and laughter and rejoicing in the daily miracles of a great God. And, after more than three years, she was ready to share all of this again.
