“You jutht thought I would like it?”
“Yes. Because it was the best painting in the exhibition.”
“Yeth. It wath.”
“Do you really love it?”And is there still a chance you might love me, the man who can’t afford you and has caused you all this trouble?
“Yeth.”
“Then I’m glad you’re keeping it.”
“I am, too. But I’m thorry for your watch and ring.”
“I’m not,” he said and smiled to show how much he meant it. “I never look at my watch and the ring was a nuisance.”
Caro yawned and only covered her mouth right at the end. “I’m hungry.”
“Yes, you must be,” he agreed, getting a glimpse of her tongue. “And are you tired, darling?”
“I am. The morning seemth like it wath a decade ago.”
“But you still look like you’re a girl of twenty.”
She held a finger up and wagged it. “No jolly.”
“Jolly? No. Truth.”
She looked at him and although her lips did not move, he thought maybe for the first time he understood the idea of smiling eyes.
“All right, I’m done conthentrating for today, Phineath. I’m ready to kith you.”
He carefully moved the painting from the seat next to her and sat down beside his wife. She turned to him. He cupped her square jaw with his hand and lightly stroked the skin in front of her ear with a fingertip. He looked in her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, still hiding so much from him. He kissed her and her lips were soft, yielding to him, in every way the opposite of the practical, driven woman she’d been today. He pressed his forehead to hers.
“Thank you, darling.”
“For the kith?”
“For the kiss and for everything you’ve done for me today.”
“For uth.”
“Yes. For us.”
They would weather this together. Despite her vulnerability to his touch and his talk, Caro was strong. Much stronger and braver than he. Much more willing to face unpleasantness and make sacrifices.
He really was going to have to muster up something if he was not going to turn into a leech, sucking sustenance from his wife, only taking and never giving.
But what could Phineas Edge muster except the forbidden jollying?
Then Caro leaned into him and initiated her own kiss.
This. I can give her this. I can make sure she knows with every bit of her being that I married her forher.
And someday, when I feel brave and I know she’s ready and she won’t push me away, I’ll tell her I love her.
Because I do.
PartThree
