Page 46 of Just Say Christmas
She was still lying halfway over him minutes after they’d finished, one supple leg wrapped around his hip, her hair tickling his chest, since he’d pulled the knot loose and let it down. He’d loved her with short hair, but he loved the brush of her fine hair against him even more, as she worked her way down his body the way she had tonight, when he’d closed his eyes in the semi-dark, felt her sliding down his skin, seeming to wind around him the same way she’d done on stage, and had focused on feeling every tingling, thrilling sensation. Chloe knew how to use her body, and bloody hell, but he was glad of it.
They didn’t always talk a lot, but tonight, the niggle was there, and he needed to examine it. He said, one hand still moving down her back, over her hip, tracing the muscle of her thigh, and back up again, “I’m thirty.”
“Mmm,” she said, relaxing under his hand. “I remember. I’m thirty-two. Older than you. I’m aging all right so far, though.” She was practically asleep, which meant that he should probably wait until tomorrow. He’d just get it out there, and they could both sleep on it.
“I think I should make a plan,” he said. “And my plan involves you.”
She raised her head from his chest. “OK. What?”
He felt the tension in her and kept his hand moving. Telling her with his touch,It’s OK. I’m here. I’ll always be here.“Got two or three more good years of rugby in me, I reckon. Depending on injury, of course. I’m thinking, after that . . . I could teach P.E. High school, maybe. Coach the rugby team. Help the girls’ team out when I can, too. It’s not flash, but I’d like to do it, and I’d be good at it. What do you think?”
“I think you’d be brilliant at it,” she said. “Nobody more patient. Kids, though, not professionally?”
“Yeh.” Of this, he was sure. “I’ve got a house. I’ve got you and Zavy. I’m having the career I’ve always dreamed of. I’ve seen the world, at least the airports and stadiums of the world. I don’t need more travel, and I don’t need heaps more money. I’ve got a good life. Unless you want to take a year or two in London or Paris, the way Michael’s taking a year here. In which case, maybe we do it after next season. I’m off contract then, and I haven’t committed to re-signing. If we’re going to do it, it’s time to think about it. Wherever it is, I want my second act to be about home. I like being home.” It was simple, but it was the truth, and hewassimple. Chloe was complicated. He was simple. That was why they worked.
“I could do,” she said. “Want a year overseas, that is, to dance with another company, to push the skill level up another notch.” She’d sat up, not looking scared. Looking challenged, and excited. Also absolutely comfortable naked. She’d started sleeping naked lately, now that Zavy wasn’t waking up at night, and he loved waking up, reaching for her, and feeling his hand slide over bare skin.
“The girls will be done with Uni at the end of next year,” he said. “Time to push them out of the nest. Zavy will be five. Good time to rent the house out and have a crack at Europe, I’d say. And if wearein London, or Bath, or Paris, or wherever it is, I’d be home more. Distances are shorter, eh. No more two weeks gone on tour.”
“You know . . .” she said, and hesitated.
He’d sat up, too, and now, he put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “This would be one of those times,” he told her gently, “when you can be needy. Tell me what you want. Tell me your dream.”
“Right, then. London or Paris, or maybe Marseille. Isn’t there a rugby team near there?”
“Toulon. Also two teams in Paris.”
She said, “I don’t know if I can get on, of course. I’d have to see. But you’d want to do that?”
“Yeh. It’d be an adventure, wouldn’t it, for all of us. A year or two, and then we’re back here, on to the next thing.”
“I could . . .” She hesitated again, then went on. “I’m going to say it. If we did it for a year, I could have a baby after that. One more year here, a year or so dancing overseas, and then we could have a baby.”
“Not too much of a sacrifice?” His heart rate had picked up, and so had his breath. A baby girl, maybe. A daughter. Or another son. Either. Absolutely, either.
“No,” she said with decision. “It would make dancing even sweeter, the next couple years, knowing I could enjoy every minute of it. And then, assuming it works out . . . we stay wherever it is for another year or so, and you’re still playing, but you’re around more, and we have a baby. And then we bring everybody home and start the next chapter.”
“You’re back to dancing,” he said, “and I’m the one staying home for a while, maybe, taking some paternity leave, and then in a school. Some school. Time with the kids, time with you.”
“Sounds pretty domestic,” she said. “And don’t forget Fred Astaire, the dancing dog.”
“Sounds pretty perfect,” he said. “Including Fred. Sounds like life, both of us living it in three hundred sixty degrees, every wedge of the pie.” He laughed out loud. “Sounds like life.”
25
A Nintervention
Tuesday,December 15
NYREE
It was Tuesday afternoon, and for some reason, Marko was in the room, saying, “About ready to go?”
Nyree jumped and almost smeared black paint across the witch’s face. “What? Why are you here?”
“Because it’s seven,” he said. “And you aren’t home and aren’t answering your texts.”
“Oh.” She didn’t want to set her brush down, so she didn’t. Her hand practically itched to get back to work, except that her back was aching. Also, she had to pee. Huh. “I turned it off. It was bothering me.”
