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Realising that I was in love with my husband really was the strangest conclusion I had ever come to in my life, and that just made me laugh even more.
My life was so strange.
• • •
“Oh, good. There you are.” Matthew looked over at me and set his laptop on the sofa.
“Can we talk?” I asked, shuffling slowly into the living room, then pausing. “Why do you have the fire on?”
He pointed to the window. “Late spring storm. Or early summer storm, depending how you look at it.”
“It’s early June. Isn’t that summer?”
“Not a clue,” he replied brightly. “But it’s wet and cold so I put the fire on. I also needed it so I could do this, so I’m glad you’re here.” He picked up a large envelope from the coffee table and stood up. “This is the agreement we signed before we got married.”
I swallowed. “What about it?”
Without a word, Matthew walked over to the fire and tossed the envelope onto it.
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t care about it. I’m done with it. It doesn’t matter, because I have no intention of amicably divorcing you after five years. I intend to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“As noble as your intentions are, I do have a copy myself.”
He glanced at the envelope that was now little more than ash, then slowly turned to me. “It was more symbolic than anything, if I’m honest. I was going for one of those majestic romantic comedy movie moments.”
I raised my eyebrows, and my lips curved up to one side. “Are you being serious? Was I supposed to gather my skirt and run across the room to throw myself into your arms?”
“It wouldn’t have gone amiss.”
“I’m not good with the running part. It upsets my stomach.”
“Elin did say there was a moment this afternoon when you walked the dogs.”
I grimaced. I appreciated her friendship—and her biscuits—but that was not my finest moment. It wasn’t every day you threw up on someone’s prize rose bush. “I owe her a rose bush.”
He nodded sagely. “Noted. We’ll order one tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
“Now that my movie moment is well and truly ruined, what did you want to talk about?”
“Don’t sit down,” I rushed out as he moved to the sofa. I walked over to him and pulled the envelope containing my copy of the contract from behind my back. “I wanted to talk about this.”
He dropped his gaze to it. “Your copy of the contract.”
I nodded. “Your way was a more effective method of communication.”
“What?”
I threw the envelope on the fire, and it landed in the same spot as his had done. Just like before, the paper caught easily, and the flames licked away at it until it was consumed entirely by the heat.
“Eva.”
I turned back to him. “I don’t care either,” I said softly, meeting his gaze. “I don’t care what we agreed. I don’t want to be married to you because a piece of paper says I have to be.”
He stared at me, saying nothing, not moving.
“I want to be married to you because I want to be.” I paused. “And I do, Matthew. I want to be married to you.”
“Why?”
“Well, you don’t annoy me the way I thought you would, and you make a mean batch of scrambled eggs.”
His lips twitched. “Evangeline.”
I pouted. “Fine. I suppose it’s because I love you.”
He cradled my face and kissed me sweetly. “There we are. That wasn’t too hard now, was it?”
“Very much so.”
Matthew smiled, stroking his thumbs across my cheeks until his hands were resting at the sides of my neck. “There’s one little problem.”
“What’s that?”
“Two, actually.”
“Gosh, are you pulling them out of your arse or what?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “There’s a third copy. With my lawyer.”
“Ah. There’s another with mine.”
We both looked towards the fire.
“It really was fuelled by noble intentions, wasn’t it?” I mused.
Matthew laughed and pulled me to the sofa to sit down. “We’ll sort it next week. There’s a reason we slipped in the break clause to break the contract in case we fell in love.”
“How very romantic of us.”
“There’s nothing like a break clause in a relationship contract to really make you feel the love, is there?”
I curled my legs up onto the sofa and laughed at him. “Who needs roses when you have that?”
“Elin, after you vomited on her favourite bush.”
“You just had to ruin the moment, didn’t you?”
“Just keeping it real.” He grinned, resting his arm on the back of the sofa as he looked at me.
“Wait, you said there were two problems. A minute ago. One was the copies with our lawyer—what’s the second one?”
He tilted his head to one side, and the smile that curved his lips made his eyes sparkle. “It’s not a problem, per se, but something I’d like to rectify before the baby comes.”
