Page 97 of The Secret

He was silent for a second before answering. “Yes. Rafe’s family has a house a little bit further down than where we are. The three of us have been coming here every year for Memorial Day since we were in college.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun. Is it just the three of you?”

“Usually, yes. It’s our weekend rule. We party in the town, but the house is just a boys’ weekend.”

“Usually?” I watched Barclay digging in the sand.

“Last year, Rafe’s youngest brother, Rory, came along with some of his Varsity mates, and they brought some girls…” His voice trailed off and my stomach dropped, not knowing what was about to come next. “Last Memorial Day is when Bell was conceived.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t expected that. I was also surprised I hadn’t known, or that we hadn’t talked about it. I stopped and turned to him. “Oh, and you haven’t been back since? Is this hard for you? Has it been hard to be here?”

His soft smile made my heart thump double time.

“No. I hadn’t thought about it at all until we were driving down the road yesterday. So much has changed in my life since Bell came along,” His fingers brushed my cheek, “Since you came along. I live a very privileged life, as you can see. I worked my ass off building my business from scratch, but I still do appreciate that I have a lot more than most. However, until Bell, I don’t think I ever realized that something was missing. Bell and you, you’ve changed my whole world.”

He spread his legs slightly, a new move he made whenever he was trying to get closer to my height. His arms snaked around my waist and he pulled me into the side of him without squashing Bell. “This past week, and now having you here with my family and Bell, it’s been the best week of my life. It feels like everything is slotting into place, where I didn’t understand it before.”

His mouth fell onto mine, soft and full, capturing my lips and parting them with his own. His tongue tangled against mine, hot and sweet, then softly moaned before letting me go. His eyes met mine when he moved back.

“What?”

I hadn’t planned to say anything, or hadn’t planned to say anything right this second and spoil this perfect moment between the two of us, because if I was honest, he’d changed my life too. I hadn’t been looking for a relationship; I definitely hadn’t ever expected one to come from this job. Hell, I hadn’t evenwantedthis job, but even with all that, the breakneck speed with which it had moved over the past few days was festering in the back of my mind, like spoiled milk. Because the faster you rise, the faster you plummet.

And no one survives a plummet.

“This morning, Freddie and Wolf told me about the set-up, about hiring me for you, more than you needing a nanny.”

He groaned loudly, his hands letting go of me and pushing through his hair in frustration. “I had nothing to do with that. I was so mad when I found out because all they try to do is marry me off.” He kissed my nose with a smile. “But it’s all worked out.”

I didn’t know what he meant byit’s all worked outbut I didn’t want to ruin the moment by pushing the points of my spiraling maze of thoughts.

I straightened Bell’s sun hat, and Murray’s arm slipped round my shoulder as we started heading down the beach again. Barclay ran back to us, shaking off a torrent of sea water, the droplets creating a rainbow effect around us.

“Ugh!” I jumped out of the way, nearly colliding with an older lady walking past in the opposite direction. I wiped myself off, making Murray laugh. “Thanks, Barc.”

“Dogs! Can’t remember the last time I wore something that was clean for longer than a few minutes,” she chuckled, nodding at her own dogs, although I wasn’t sure a Labrador and a Chihuahua was a fair comparison.

“I know, right?”

She smiled at the three of us. “You have a beautiful daughter.”

“Thank you,” Murray replied, with a smile so wide it could eclipse the sun.

“You’re a lucky boy to have such a beautiful wife and baby.” She shook her finger at him, teasingly.

“Yes, ma’am, and don’t I know it.” He pulled me in and kissed my head.

“Enjoy your day,” she said, leaving us to catch up with her dogs who’d moved pretty far down the beach considering how small their legs were.

“There’s a great ice-cream parlor round here. Let’s see if it’s open.” He carried on walking as though nothing had happened.

I stopped, trying to figure out why it bothered me so much that he dismissed comments about us so easily. I understood that it was probably simpler for him to go with whatever people assumed, but that didn’t mean I was assuming, or even knew what we were. Were we dating now? Were we in a relationship? We hadn’t even had sex. Or maybe I’d been right and he didn’t want to. Twice he’d left me at my door when any other guy would have jumped at the chance to come in.

“Murray?” I stopped again, my brows knotted together.

“Yes, darling?”

“That woman, she said we were a beautiful family...”

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