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‘I love you, Jess.’
‘I love you too, Greg.’
For long moments they just smiled, the words echoing around them like a web of finely spun joy. Then she was on her feet. He moved at the same time, pulling her towards him and onto his lap, holding her tightly against his beating heart.
‘How long is Charles going to be?’ Jess was trying, without much success, to keep at least one strand of her attention on the door.
‘We won’t be interrupted. Charles makes an art out of discretion.’
‘Well, you’d better kiss me, then. Quickly… ’
He cut her short. Kissed her slowly, taking his time to savour it. ‘I was wrong, Jess. I’m sorry.’
‘I was wrong, too. And I’m sorry.’
He chuckled. ‘You’re going to fight me over it? I was wronger than you.’
She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck. ‘There’s no such word as “wronger”. We were both wrong. But we’ve got this chance now, and I’m not going to let it go.’
‘I thought for a while that I’d left it too late. That you wouldn’t come with me.’
‘Yeah, so did I. But I was just kidding myself. There was no way I couldn’t have come.’
He dropped a kiss onto her brow. ‘No way I couldn’t have asked you. Or kept on asking if you turned me down the first time.’
‘I want to tell you something, Greg.’ Jess pressed her lips together.
‘Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.’
‘No, it does. I’ll say this now and then there’s an end to it. We can leave it behind here.’ She dug him gently in the ribs. ‘I’m sure Charles knows What to do with any worn-out thoughts that people leave floating around in his office.’
He chuckled. ‘No doubt he does. What do you want to say?’
Jess took a deep breath. ‘I thought that I could do it all by myself, Greg. I’d told myself for so long that I didn’t need my father, that I didn’t care that he wasn’t around, that I started believing it. I didn’t want to feel that loss.’
‘You feel it now?’
‘Yeah. In a strange way I do. But you’ll help me through that, won’t you? You’ll show me that there’s a different way to make a family.’
‘We’ll face that together. We’ll show each other, darling.’ He hugged her tightly. ‘I won’t let you go, Jess. I’m not going to let you fall.’
‘Mmm. I know. Feels good.’ She took a moment to let the happiness seep a little further into her bones. Banishing the shadows. Freeing her from them. ‘And you’ll get to meet my mum and stepdad on Boxing Day. If you want to.’
‘Of course I want to. Do you think they’ll want to meet me?’
‘My mum will love you. And I think you’ll get on with my stepdad too. They were going to help me move some furniture.’
‘Right. Or I could do it for you and we could all sit down and have a nice meal. Get to know each other.’
‘Or I could forget about moving the furniture and tell them I’m coming to live with you.’
He chuckled. ‘That would be my first preference. Is there any particular reason why you want to move the furniture?’
‘They want to help. I realised last week that I want them to help too.’ She twined her fingers around his.
He chuckled. ‘I’m sure you’ll find something else for them to do. If you don’t, I’ll be sorting something out with your mother myself. But I’m glad you took that step.’
‘Me too.’
