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“What are you going to do?” she asked as they got into his car. “Will you stay after your probation period finishes?”
“I’m looking at my options.” Aaron started the engine. “I’m thinking about maybe stepping sideways. Going into legal aid.”
Her eyes popped wide as she turned and stared at his profile. “Wow, thatisa step sideways.”
His tone was level as he said, “Yeah. I guess you could say I’ve had a few major eye-openers lately.”
Quickly, Alice looked out the passenger window. She shouldn’t read too much into those words; the things he’d told her had helped her make sense of the past, but hadn’t made her think they had a future. If anything, it was the reverse. And yet the softness in his eyes… the way he’d looked at her all afternoon, the steady grip of his fingers around hers…
“Oh, gosh,” she realised after a few minutes. “We’re at the beach.”
“We are indeed.”
“Isn’t the Bendt’s house just up the road from here?” She almost expected to see sparks flying off the roof.
“Don’t worry,” Aaron said, “we’re going the other way.”
As they exited the car, once again Aaron took her hand firmly in his. Alice let him lead her down to the beach. Ahead of them the volleyball pitch was all lit up and party to a few gathering seagulls.
She looked around, puzzled. “This was where you brought me when—”
Aaron grinned. “—You were getting over that panic attack after our first date.”
“Fakedate,” she corrected, then giggled nervously. “And you gave me a flirting lesson and I was hopeless, if I remember rightly.’
Their feet sinking into the sand, Aaron turned to face her.
“I thought maybe we should have another go at it.”
Speechless, she gazed at him as her heart bumped into her mouth.
Aaron settled his shoulders, composed his face, put his hands in his pockets, took them out again. “Okay, a bit of back story here. So there’s this guy who’s spent some time with this girl, lots of time, actually, over quite a few years.” He stepped closer, took one of her hands and threaded her fingers through his. A flurry of firecrackers exploded inside her and she frowned to try and hide it. “And here’s the thing… this guy, he kind of screwed up. Badly. Took the girl for granted, always expected that she’d be there for him, basically behaved like a selfish, conceited prick… and…” He stopped, stared up at the darkening sky. “And then one day…”
His fingers squeezed hers tight, and she saw his throat work. Maybe she needed to give him a little help. “Go on,” she nudged.
“Okay, in role now.” Aaron cleared his throat. “I had a great time with you today.”
Alice swallowed hard. “Me too.”
“I’d really like to see you again.”
“That would be nice…”
Aaron lifted his free hand in the air, as if raising the bar. “How about ‘that would be wonderful’? Or ‘I’d love to’.”
Alice nibbled on her lip, trying to focus on his words. “I guess that depends…”
“On what?”
“On his intentions.”
Aaron shook his head. “No, no, not third person, not ‘his’. Talk to me.” He tapped his chest with his free hand. “Askme, Aaron, aboutmyintentions.” His eyes traced her face until she knew she was blushing madly.
Alice swallowed hard. Here they were. Finally. “Are they honourable?” God, here was the moment she’d been waiting for and she sounded like she’d just walked off the page of a regency romance!
Aaron threw back his head and laughed. Then his hand came up and stroked her cheek. Fingers grazed her lips. His eyes dived into hers, bright and brimful of something unbearably wonderful as he murmured, “Deeply, deeply honourable.”
Emboldened, she let her lips nip at his finger and heard him inhale sharply.
