‘When I got home from the hospital that day – back to the flat,’ Rosie went on, ‘I was gutted to find you gone. And I realised something: it’s just a building, a box. I’ve painted it and furnished it, but it isn’t my home anymore if you’re not in it.’
‘Ohmy…’ Gwyn breathed, her hazel eyes shiny with tears. Then, realising she’d spoken aloud, she mimed zipping her own mouth shut.
‘I didn’t give you a chance to explain your reasons for thinking about selling the building,’ Rosie continued. ‘But I know they must have been good ones. I was angry, but I should have let you tell me.’
‘If you had,’ Aled said, ‘I’d have told you it was for the people in this room. I’d got this idea that Tiegan and Geth needed university funds – that this was a way I could give back to Mam, after my father left her with absolutely nothing. It felt fitting that the money should come from his family, see? I’d hired a conveyancer to start organising the legal stuff before I even met you. And when I knew I was falling in love with you I instructed the firm to pause the process.’
Mal whistled.
Rosie felt breathless. Fireworks were exploding behind her eyes. She turned his words over in her mind, half convinced she’d imagined him saying them:I was falling in love with you. With some effort, she managed to regain her composure.
‘Um … when was that?’ she asked, her voice tremulous.
‘A long time ago,’ Aled said on a sigh. ‘The day I admitted I’d been feeding Springsteen.’
‘The singer?’ Gwyn interjected again. She sounded thrilled.
‘The cat,’ Rosie and Aled said together.
‘But that’s … that was only a few weeks into us knowing each other,’ Rosie murmured, incredulous.
‘Yeah.’ Aled dragged a hand through his hair and bit his lip. ‘When you know, you know. I told you I was done for from the moment I saw you in your red dress. And I meant the first time … the day I met you, when you almost knocked me out and then started babbling about marriage proposals. You are beautiful and lovely, funny and bright and kind. You’re extraordinary, Rosie. Like I said, it shines out of you. You warm everyone you meet.’
At this, Niamh emitted a sob. ‘It’s too much! It’s just too lovely.’
‘I can’t believe you liked me from that first day,’ Rosie said. ‘I was a clumsy oaf. I was mortified!’
‘I hid it well, but you made me want to laugh until my ribs cracked,’ Aled said, with the half-smile she’d adored almost from the very first time she saw it. ‘Here’s something else you won’t believe: I’ve seenWhen Harry Met Sallyabout fifty-eight times. I just wanted a reason to sit next to you that night we had the power cut.’
Rosie’s mouth dropped open.
‘Also, I made James put his bike in the outdoor shed because I didn’t like how he treated you. He wasn’t in any way wrong about me having a vendetta.Also… the renovation on the top-floor flat was finished two weeks ago. I just didn’t say anything because I couldn’t stand the thought of not living with you anymore.’
Rosie laughed. ‘Is there anything else you need to confess? Because I wanted to ask you something. And since it turns out youhaveseen the end ofWhen Harry Met Sally, you’ll understand that I want to do it as soon as possible.’
Aled shook his head, smiling at her.
‘I didn’t come here to disrupt your family Christmas,’ she said, ‘but I wanted to ask what you were doing on New Year’s Eve? And maybe … maybe forallthe New Year’s Eves afterwards. For the rest of our lives.’
He pulled her into his arms, laughing as her sopping-wet jumper immediately soaked his own. ‘I’m doing this,’ he said, dropping a kiss on her forehead. ‘Always this.’
And then, as if he’d never been shy a single moment of his life, he pressed his lips to hers, kissing her like he’d been starved – like he’d been waiting for her. Like she was all his Christmases come at once.
Someone – Gethin? – wolf-whistled. Someone else coughed. A voice that sounded very much like Niamh’s said, ‘Dearlord. No wonder she was willing to drive all this way.’
Rosie leaned back a little, breaking contact with Aled before their kiss became too heated for family viewing.
‘Maybe we could watch the odd Jane Austen adaptation, too?’ she said, a little dizzy. ‘Eat curry on Friday nights? Make each other tea and toast in the mornings. That sort of thing.’
‘And fight over who gets to have Springsteen on their lap every night,’ Aled agreed.
‘As if we’ll get a say in where he sits,’ Rosie scoffed, raising an eyebrow.
Aled laughed and stroked her still-sopping hair. She relaxed against him, breathing him in as everyone else in the room cheered.
‘I’m so glad your mum’s OK, by the way,’ Aled murmured, squeezing her tighter. ‘I should have said before.’
‘How did you find out?’ Rosie asked, squeezing him back.
