AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Rushing me off somewhere without telling me where we’re going or what we’re doing.’
‘I like surprising you.’ The line felt like… it felt like just a line. Something to say to keep the peace and prompt a smile.
‘You mean you like a fait accompli.’ She grinned up at him. ‘If you don’t tell me where we’re going then I don’t have a chance to object.’
She had a point. ‘You mean I’m afraid of what you might say?’
‘Are you?’
‘Terrified. You scare the living daylights out of me.’
She bumped her shoulder against his and laughed. Funny, that. The way he was in absolute earnest and yet it didn’t even occur to Jess to believe him.
He made the taxi stop at the entrance to a mews so that he could walk with her on his arm, down the dark, deserted street. She could look around, get an idea of what the place was like.
‘You like this?’
She shrugged, looking around her. ‘Very nice.’
Maybe she’d like it a little better when she knew what they were doing there. Greg withdrew the estate agent’s key from his pocket and located the front door that he wanted.
She was watching him gravely now. ‘What’s going on?’
‘This property’s for sale. I wanted you to take a look at it.’
‘You’re thinking of moving?’
Greg didn’t reply. All he needed to do was to get her inside and then maybe she’d fall in love with the place, the way that the blurb on the property had promised.
The rooms were surprisingly large inside the mews cottage. Jess imagined that in the daytime they’d be light as well. The furniture had been cleared and the walls were painted white, as if to give prospective buyers a blank canvas for their own imaginations. It was an amazing place. She couldn’t think why he would want to move when his current location seemed to fit his needs so well, but as he obviously did, this looked like a place where he could be happy.
‘There’s a good school just around the corner.’
‘Bit of a long way from my place.’ An alarm bell began to clatter quietly in the back of her head. Like next door’s smoke detectors going off.
‘I was thinking that this could be your place. If you wanted.’
If only. ‘I don’t know, Greg. We said we’d leave that decision for a while. Not rush things, just because I’m pregnant.’
‘I’m not moving. This place is just for you.’
Jess looked around. Swallowed hard. The house was lovely. More than enough space for her and her baby. A little walled garden at the back and shops just down the road. ‘Greg it’s lovely, but… ’
‘If you don’t like this one, my estate agent tells me that there’s plenty of choice.’
‘I imagine there is. How much is this cottage on the market for?’ Jess couldn’t make a stab at an exact sum but she knew it must be a lot. Probably more than she wanted to hear.
He shrugged. ‘I can afford it. The only thing that matters is whether you like it or not.’
Jess could feel tears. Dammit, she wasn’t going to cry. Tears would only give Greg the impression that she was labouring under a surfeit of happiness and that really wasn’t the case. ‘It’s a lovely thought, Greg, and I do appreciate it, really I do. But I’m happy where I am.’
‘I know. But you could be happier here.’ He looked around. ‘Or if you weren’t, at least you’d have a bit more room to be as happy as you were before.’
‘I can’t afford to run this place, Greg. This is a private mews, there must be some kind of charge for upkeep. And the shops… ’
‘What’s wrong with the shops?’
‘Well, they’re great, but they’re all speciality shops. The kind of place I go into once in a blue moon. They’re far too expensive for me to use all the time.’ Jess stopped. She knew she was sounding ungrateful. But these were the kinds of practicalities that she had to think about. Babies didn’t come cheap, and she was going to have to watch her budget.
