They stood there in the falling snow, looking at each other, while the full scope of their miscommunication settled between them. Waffles, sensing the gravity of the moment, had abandoned his street debris investigation and was sitting at Elizabeth’s feet. Even Athena seemed to be waiting.
The silence stretched between them, filled only by the soft whisper of snow and the distant sound of a car engine. Elizabeth’s heart was hammering so hard she was surprised it wasn’t audible through her coat.
She lifted herself up on her toes and let herself down slowly. “Right, then. Um, a walking tour of the old mysteries of London.”
“Haven’t you been on all of those?” he asked.
“Yes. I love them.”
“Noted,” he said with a little smile.
“A scavenger hunt we go on together. A rock-climbing wall—I’ve always wanted to try one. If you want to buy jewellery, an inexpensive charm bracelet, something you could add to as time goes on.” She looked up into his eyes. “Things like that.”
“I wish I’d just have asked you.” Darcy's laugh was rueful. “Richard suggested origami planes.”
“Oh.” She considered that, and then grinned. “I think maybe he was considering whathe’dlike to receive.”
“The thing is,” Darcy said, “Iwantus to be clear with one another. I want us to be in this relationship together.”
Elizabeth’s breath caught. He’d called it a relationship. “Even if it means less practical problem-solving and more ridiculous romantic gestures?”
“Even if it means that.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Though I should warn you, I’m surely going to be rubbish at it. I’ve spent most of my adult life believing that love was about anticipating everyone’s needs and moving to meet them before they had to ask.”
“And I’ve spent most of mine believing that love was about grand gestures and emotional demonstrations,” Elizabeth admitted. “Neither of us is wrong.”
“Just incomplete?”
“Incomplete,” she agreed. “It’s brilliant that you listen when I complain about things and then just take care of them when you know I won’t mind. Like the boiler. You take care of people, and it’s one of the loveliest things about you. It’s just that because you are so kind to everyone in your life, it can be difficult to know where I stand among them.”
He reached for her hand. “You stand alone, Elizabeth.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Well. I do enjoy a clear ranking.”
“And I love that you spent three weeks learning to knit just to give me something made with your own hands. It’s just that sometimes you make mental leaps ahead and leave me a bit behind not knowing where you are.”
Elizabeth felt something warm and bright unfurl in her chest. “I can work on that.”
“And next Christmas, I promise to give you something equally ridiculous and romantic and completely impractical.”
“You don’t haveto—”
“I want to,” Darcy interrupted. “Elizabeth, I want to be the man who sometimes gives you things that make you smile rather than things that resolve your problems. Though I reserve the right to occasionally send someone to fix your boiler without asking.”
“Deal.” Elizabeth laughed despite the tears that were definitely threatening now. “And I promise to appreciate the problem-solving, even when I’m secretly hoping for flowers.”
He frowned. “I’d been weighing up getting you flowers. Next time. Lots of them. Ridiculously expensive ones that serve no practical purpose whatsoever.”
“Just start small,” Elizabeth said.
“Sound advice.” Darcy reached out tentatively, his gloved hand cupping her cheek. “Elizabeth?”
“Yes?”
Elizabeth’s heart nearly stopped, suspended in the space between his question and whatever he was about to say next. Part of her wanted to fill the silence, to deflect with a joke or change the subject, anything to avoid the possibility of hearing something that would shatter the fragile hope she’d been nurturing. The other part held exquisitely still and waited for Darcy to either break her heart or make it whole.
“I love you,” he said. “You, just as you are, terrible knitting skills and crazy mutt and all.”
The words stole the breath from her lungs and made her knees go suddenly, ridiculously weak. Her free hand flew to her chest, pressing against her coat as if she could somehow contain the wild hammering of her heart. The relief was so overwhelming it was almost painful, like warmth flooding back into frozen limbs.
