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“Miss me?”he asked, his eyes shining bright.
“Nope,” I teased, wiggling my eyebrows at him because it was fairly clear from the hardness in his jeans that he had missed me, and my pouncing on him hadn’t helped.
“Urgh, both of you get out of my kitchen,” Louise joked as Donovan’s lips found mine again.
I dropped my legs from around him, turning to look at her, knowing my cheeks were flushed.“I can finish helping in here first,” I said, my cheeks flaming more at what I’d said.
First meaning, before I go upstairs and have sex with your son.
Subtle, Nova.
June and Louise glanced at each other, contagious smiles on their faces.“Get out of here,” June said, shooing us away with her hand.“We’ll see you at dinner time.”She shook her head, chuckling.
“Thanks, Nan,” Donovan said, looking both amused and embarrassed that his grandmother had given us permission to get naked for the next five hours.He grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the kitchen and up to our room.
Just as June had predicted,we didn’t emerge until food was ready.We weren’t doing it thewholetime.There was some conversation, and then a shower, and then getting ready, but needless to say, it had been a fun afternoon.
Dinner with our family was truly exceptional.We’d all chipped in in some way to make the dinner, but Louise had done most of the work, and it was outstanding.The drinks and conversation flowed easily, and once we had eaten and everything had been cleared away, Sam turned the music up and we all spread out to do our own thing for a while.Mum and Dad were drinking wine together in the living room, Sam was dancing with June in the room we’d all sat in earlier, and Louise was making sure enough nibbles were scattered around for everyone.
Donovan and I stood outside on the small balcony on the second floor, looking out at the dark night, the garden lights offering a subtle glow from below.
I shivered slightly as a cool winter breeze drifted around us, and Donovan took off his black dinner jacket to wrap around my shoulders.He always looked good to me, but he could rock formal attire like nobody else, and I smiled up at him as his scent cocooned me.
He pulled me close to him, his hands gliding across the midnight blue fabric of my long dress.
“I have to tell you something,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head and holding me tighter.
Something in his tone made me nervous, and although I could feel my muscles growing tense, I didn’t move away, I just waited.
“There was no problem with my contract for my next job,” he admitted, grimacing slightly, and my brow furrowed.
“Then… where did you go?”I asked, my heart rate slowly gaining speed.And why is he only telling me now?It must have been pretty important if he’d left his family behind.
“I did go to Manila.But it wasn’t because of a problem.It was…” he paused, taking a deep breath.“I went to terminate the contract.”
I leaned back slightly, tilting my head to the side.“What?Why?”
“Because I got a better offer.”
My heart dropped into my stomach, setting off at a gallop.Was he about to tell me we would be spending even more time apart next year?I never interfered in his job, but for this whole year, we’d always talked over where he was going before he signed anything.This sounded different somehow.
“What offer?”I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“It’s this idea I’ve been thinking about for the last few months.”His lips pulled up very slightly at the corners, so little I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been watching his mouth so intently, awaiting his next words.“Sometime last year, I ended up in this little town.Got to know one of the locals.She showed me some cool places in the area and suggested I could maybe see some more of them if I wanted to travel somewhere different for a change.”He grinned as my eyes widened, and he continued, with fake self-importance, “I told her I wasfartoo special to slum it in England, and-”
I whacked his shoulder as he started to laugh, moving his hands around to my waist and dragging me close to him again.“Donovan!What are you saying?”
“I’m coming home.Kind of.I’ve decided that, in the coming year, I’m going to trawl the corners of the UK and let people know the best, quirkiest parts.So, I’ll still be on the road, but I will be home every weekend, and I thought we could even do some stuff together at the weekends and when you’re on school holidays.”
“But…” I began.“You wanted the other contract.I thought the money…”
He shook his head, interrupting me.“The money isn’t important.I won’t make as much in the UK as I did this year, but I didn’t need it anyway.It was a bonus, but not the reason.I just wanted the experience.Now, I need to be where you are.If you’ll have me.”
I blinked, shock short-circuiting my brain because of all the things he could have said, that ranked lower than him running off to join the circus.
“Will you?”he asked, doubt glimmering in his eyes at my lack of response.I could practically see him doubting not discussing it with me beforehand, and I shook my head, reaching up to place a hand on his cheek.
“Yes,” I told him.“Of course I will, but… just know it’ll be harder for me to let you go after a year together.”I smiled because even though it was the truth, if he wanted to go out into the world again, I wouldn’t stop him.
