I ran my hand through his hair again. The question on the tip of my tongue terrified me, but I had to ask it. “I did want to ask you one thing though.”
“Yeah?” He lifted his head and tilted it to the side, looking at me with curiosity. There was a nervous flicker in his eyes and my chest tightened, because I was the one who’d put it there. He might have forgiven me, but I didn’t think he quite trusted me yet. And honestly, I deserved that.
“If you’re still planning to close Lick It! over the winter, how would you feel about going travelling together? It wouldn’t have to be for the whole closure, but there are so many beautiful places in the world I’d like to show you. We could totally call it research too—we’d just have to make sure we eat a few ice creams wherever we go.”
“Really?” Darcy looked shocked at my words, but not in a bad way. More like he was surprised I’d asked. Like it was a question he’d never expected me to ask.
“Yeah, if you want to. I can’t promise it’ll be luxurious—I tend to do things on a budget—but I want to show you the world, Darcy. I want to take you to all the places I’ve loved, introduce you to people I’ve met, the food I love. Maybe even teach you to surf.”
“Only if the water is warm,” he said with a playful smile.
“Okay, I can live with that.”
“I think… I think I’d like that,” he said. Then he nodded. “Yes, I would. I’ve never really travelled much, but there are so many places I’d love to see. Things I’d like to try. Plus, it would stop me working so much. And we’d get to avoid the Yorkshire winters.”
“Absolutely. And think of all the cool flavour combinations we could come back with.”
“Luckily Alfie and Milo are good at being test subjects.” He glanced away for a second and chewed his lip. “Do you think they’d mind if I went away?”
“Why would they?” I asked, cupping his jaw and rubbing my thumb across his cheek.
“Well, it might stop them going away. Although I suppose only one of us needs to be in town, just to keep an eye on the place. And it would mean we’d definitely have to close in the winter instead of only doing reduced hours. But I can ask Alfie to run the numbers on everything. I think if we make enough money in the summer, we should be able to close for a few months and still pay our salaries, rent, bills etc. It might actually be the better option instead of wasting money on being open when we won’t sell enough to cover everything.”
He was clearly thinking through how it would all work, his brain already racing a thousand miles an hour as he tried to problem solve everything at once.
“We don’t have to sort it all now,” I said, gently drawing his attention back to me before he got lost in questions. “We can talk to Alfie and Milo and see what they think, then we can go from there.”
“Sounds sensible,” he said. “Although I might start putting some ideas together of places I’d like to visit. Just in case.”
“Perfect.” I drew him into another kiss, happiness radiating through my body like pure sunshine.
I’d put a list together too, of all the places I wanted to show him.
It would probably be a long one. One it would take us a while to get through.
But that didn’t matter. We had plenty of time.
A lifetime, hopefully.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Darcy
“Good morning.You made up I see,” Milo said with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face as he tried, and failed, to sip his coffee nonchalantly while leaning against the back door of Lick It!.
He’d clearly been waiting for us and had been for some time. Otherwise, his coffee mug wouldn’t have been nearly empty.
Which it clearly was, considering how far back he had to tip it.
“We did,” I said, offering him a serene smile as I squeezed Owen’s hand and tried to pretend Milo hadn’t heard us fucking last night. We’d ended up spending the whole day together—talking, making out, fucking, and napping on the sofa. The only time we’d left was to venture out to find some food, and that was because Owen had insisted on getting some fresh air.
Apparently, it was good for me.
I’d have rather spent the time kissing.
“Good. About time you both got your heads out of your arses,” he said. Like he was one to talk. Although I supposed, inthis instance, he did have a point. And I was very grateful for whatever he and Alfie had said to Owen, as well as what they’d done for me.
“Just how long have you been lurking out here?” Owen asked, shooting Milo a casual smile. “Not exactly a nice day for coffee outside?”
