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‘I wanted to prove to you that you could give me your heart and I would keep it safe and I am hoping that you would accept mine.’
Chloe’s breath caught in her throat.
‘And for the record I don’t want to change a single thing about you.’
Tears pouring down her cheeks, Chloe flung herself at him, sobbing with sheer joy, and he swung her up into his arms.
Eyes locked on his, she took his hand and placed it on her heart. ‘I know you’ll keep it safe.’
Three months later
‘Another builder has quit,’ Nik said, wandering into the office where Chloe was working. ‘At this rate we’ll never move into the house on Spetses. You have to do something about her.’
‘Me!’ Chloe echoed. ‘I don’t think so. She is your grandmother.’
‘She is counting nails! We are in the middle of multimillion-pound renovation of a classic sixteenth-century mansion and my grandmother is counting nails.’
‘She is thrifty.’
‘She is insane, and you know it.’
‘She’s your grandmother...’ she reminded him, coming around the table and looping her arms around his neck. Nik kissed her hard.
‘At this rate we’re not going to be able to move in after the wedding.’
Chloe shrugged. ‘I don’t care if I start married life in a shoe box, so long as it’s with you.’
‘Now you tell me, after I’ve already had to cope with planning officers from hell, contractors who never answer their phones and, of course, let’s not forget Yaya.’
‘She’s excited about us being her new neighbours...well, for some of the time.’ Nik had not given up his London house.
‘It will all be worth it in the end, you’ll see, waking up to the smell of pines and the sound of the sea,’ she said dreamily.
‘So long as I can see you when I wake up, I don’t care. Which reminds me, have you got the shortlist for the new team leader for the charity? I don’t want my wife—’
Her eyes widened as she pressed a finger to his lips and looked over her shoulder. ‘Hush! You’ll give the game away! Imagine how upset everyone will be if they find out we already got married after they’ve been to so much trouble to arrange this massive wedding.’ Somehow she didn’t think that people would be that understanding about their impulsive elopement.
He looked at her, eyes glowing with pride and love. ‘I couldn’t wait to make you my wife. I just wish I saw more of you.’
‘I know,’ she admitted, stroking his cheek with a loving hand. ‘But who knew that the charity would take off this way? We’re interviewing for a team leader next week and there are some very strong candidates.’ She squeezed his bicep and pretended to faint. ‘Obviously not as strong as you, darling.’
Their kiss might have gone on longer if Nik’s ninety-five-year-old grandmother, all four feet five of her, hadn’t suddenly appeared. ‘A man came who said he was a building inspector. In my day there were no such thing; we just build a house with no paper.’
‘The good old days,’ Nik murmured. ‘So where is the building inspector, Yaya?’
‘Gone. I told him my grandson and his woman were busy making babies, and if they weren’t doing that, then they should be.’ Chortling at her own joke, she shuffled out of the room.
‘Well, they do say that with age comes wisdom.’ Nik extended a hand towards the door through which his grandmother had just exited. ‘How about it, wife? Do you fancy a little baby making?’
‘Only if you lock the door. If Yaya walks in on us, I might be scarred for life...’ As the unintentional play on words hit home she released a loud laugh.
Nik felt pride swell in his chest once more. His wife laughed when others might weep. She had a gift for living life to its utmost, and looking at the world through her eyes had finally brought him the peace he’d never thought he’d feel again.
‘Have my children, Chloe.’
Her throat closed up with sheer happiness. ‘It’s a big house, Nik, and there are lots of bedrooms to fill.’
‘So maybe we should get started.’
‘You read my mind!’
* * * * *
