“I love you,” he said with a smile.
“I love you back,” she said, kissing him sweetly. “I found something in the wee refrigerator.”
“Didn’t we just have breakfast?”
“We did, but ‘tis important to keep up our strength.”
“Well,” he said with a slow smile, “I suppose that’s very true.”
He would have started something that might have required a bit of sustenance after the fact, but found himself facing instead a manila folder. He looked at his wife in alarm.
“What’s that?”
“Something I found amongst the vegetables, though I’ll tell you plain, Oliver, I don’t know why you’d want to eat leaves.”
He couldn’t have agreed more, but he took the folder just the same. “I’m afraid to look inside.”
“I’ll hold you.”
He started to pitch the container of doom over his shoulder, but Mairead caught it before he could.
“It might be important,” she warned.
“If it’s from the lads, that means they were here whilst we were not which is alarming and they’re adding tasks to my book which might distract us from other things.”
She considered. “Let’s just have a look, then, and see how far it merits being flung out the front door.”
Oliver opened the folder to find a single sheaf of paper there along with a little envelope of what turned out to be stickers in the shape of a particular feline. He handed those to his wife.
“They like you.”
“I like these,” she said a little breathlessly, then she smiled at him quickly. “Not as much as you, of course, but they are very wee and charming.”
“If you pull off the backs, they stick on things. Please,” he added, “do not stick them on me.”
She laughed a little, kissed him sweetly, then nodded toward his note. “What madness are they combining now?”
He looked at the note and sighed.
Don’t think this means you get out of your holiday. The book must be completed! Don’t cheat any more, especially on the maths. An almost-running car awaits you… maybe.
Mairead cleared her throat carefully. “I could purchase you an automobile,” she offered. “I have gold enough for something small, I imagine.”
He was torn between wanting to pull up a bank statement for her and going down on his knees again and professing undying love for a woman who apparently liked him well enough to be concerned that he have wheels. He chose a smile instead and offered another in what he hoped would be an endless succession of sweet kisses between the two of them.
“I have a car,” he said a few minutes later. “Two actually.” Which he did, namely a non-descript Ford for skulking around behind less savory types and a ridiculously expensive Audi that put him firmly in the category of Britain’s rudest drivers, but it had suited him at the time when he’d plunked down his hard-earned sterling for it.
Her eyes widened. “Are you so wealthy, then? I—”
“Can absolutely afford to purchase yourself as many things in black as you like with my funds,” he finished for her. He smiled. “I won’t let us starve, Mair.”
She looked at her hand that was resting on his chest for a moment or two, then met his eyes. “I like being included in your life.”
He had to clear his throat not because he’d suddenly become overwhelmed by emotion but because the fire was smoky. “I am thrilled you want to be.”
“What will we do after your holiday is over?” she asked hesitantly. “I suppose I could stay with Jamie and Elizabeth.”
Whywas halfway out of his mouth before he caught himself and put his brain in neutral. He looked at the woman in his arms and considered her upbringing, a few of her relatives who still deserved a right proper beating, and her previous expectations for her future. His usual refuge was silence so he didn’t make a complete ass of himself at any given moment, but he suspected that with that woman there, that would be a poor choice.
