‘Oh right.’
‘Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just prefer it this way.’
He got up and in three steps was at the door. ‘Did I see a steel fire pit outside the other day?’
‘Yeah, there’s one out by the beach with a couple of Adirondack chairs. Why?’
‘I was thinking hot chocolate by the fire pit underneath the stars? Keen?’
It sounded romantic. ‘Definitely keen.’
‘Great. I’ll get the fire going while you make the hot chocolate.’
I heated milk slowly in the saucepan, adding cocoa powder, a pinch each of sugar and salt, a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar and some vanilla extract, stirring it slowly until the chocolate melted and it all blended together nicely.
At one point, Jonah came back inside. ‘Blankets?’ he asked.
I pointed towards a built-in linen closet next to the wardrobe. ‘In there.’
‘Perfect.’
He helped himself to a couple of warm, navy-colored plush blankets and disappeared outside again. When I was satisfied with the temperature of the hot chocolate, I carefully poured it into two large stone mugs and placed them on a white wooden tray. Inside the welcome basket in the pantry that the real estate agent had left for me, I found a bag of pink and white marshmallows and a packet of skewers, which I soaked underneath the tap for a few minutes before adding them to the tray. Happy with it, I lifted the tray and headed outside to join Jonah.
‘Turn the porch light off on your way out,’ he called. ‘If you can do it without dropping that tray.’
‘I can massage a man’s heart in his open chest to keep him alive, I think I can manage to carry a tray and turn off a light.’ I flicked the switch. ‘See? Oh!’
Someone, a previous tenant probably, had hung solar fairy lights all around the outside of the cottage roof. In the darkness they twinkled like little stars.
‘I keep forgetting you were an ER nurse,’ he mused, as I crossed the lawn to where he was standing over the fire pit, stoking the flames with a piece of metal. ‘You must have seen some awful things.’
I put the tray down on the small outdoor table between the chairs. ‘I have. I’ve seen some pretty cool things too, though, to balance it out. There’s no feeling like watching a baby being born into the world. Endless opportunities and possibilities ahead of them.’
‘Do you… have you ever…’ He coughed. ‘You know.’
I passed him a mug of hot chocolate and sat in one of the chairs, pulling the blanket he had draped on the side of it over my knees. ‘Wanted kids?’
He nodded, taking a seat on the other chair and picking up his own mug.
‘Yeah. I’d love a family one day. Just haven’t met the right guy yet.’
‘Your ex-boyfriend, he wasn’t the right guy?’
‘There was a time when I thought he was,’ I admitted. ‘But I can look back now, with a bit of time between us, and see that he never felt the same way for me as I did for him. We were at totally different stages in life. Wanted different things.’
‘Like?’
I screwed up my face. ‘Monogamy, for one.’
In the light of the fire I saw his jaw clench. ‘He cheated on you?’
‘He did. Once. Well, at least once that I know of. It was in the early days of our relationship though, so I forgave him when he confessed. It wasn’t easy, because I had to see her almost every day.’
I watched as the penny dropped. ‘She worked at the hospital too?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah. Freya. A nurse. My ex, Nick, worked at the hospital too. He was a cardiothoracic surgeon.’
‘He was also a jerk, by the sounds of it.’
