Page 45 of Love Me Ever After
“What would you have done if I’d said I would come with you?”
He laughed. “Asked for a better apartment for a start. You’d have hated it.”
I speared a prawn and popped it into my mouth. The buttery garlic sauce was heavenly, although I probably wouldn’t think that later. “I never did get to see pictures of it.”
“I’ll show you one day. Although it’s not a patch on our current place.”
“Current place?” I raised an eyebrow.
He held up his hands. “Hold on there, I’m not suggesting anything. Right now, I’m happy with the way things are. Let’s not go changing things just because.”
Ugh, I hated it when he was right. There I was, rushing ahead of myself again instead of enjoying the moment. We were in a good place. Nothing had to change.
For the rest of dinner, we stayed away from chatting about anything controversial.
“It’s such good news about Darcy and Fraser, isn’t it?” I asked, draining the last of my espresso. My stomach was pleasantly full, despite what I’d thought earlier, after finishing off the meal with a simple berries and ice cream dish. “They’ll make great parents.”
Mason nodded. “They will. Fraser’s been such a help since I’ve been back too.”
“And I’m getting to know Darcy as more than just a bridezilla.” I giggled, thinking back to some of the outrageous requests she’d had about her wedding.
“Hmmm, I can imagine you might be a bit high maintenance in that department.” Mason leaned back in his chair and winked.
“What do you mean by that?” My heart almost stopped.
“Don’t go getting carried away again. I’m not proposing.” He let out a laugh and shook his head.
“Well, who’s to say I’d want to marry you anyway?” I blustered, trying to deflect anything I might have been thinking.
Mason shifted and leaned forward. He reached across the table and slid a hand around the back of my neck. Gently, he pulled me towards him and kissed me so thoroughly I thought I might stop breathing. Closing my eyes, I savoured every single moment of the kiss.
After a moment, he drew back, fixing me with a lopsided smile. “I love you, Ems Berry. Garlic breath and all.”
“I love you too.” I gasped and tried to calm my racing pulse. “I really do.”
21
Mason
The weekendwith my parents had been a great way to cement the future of mine and Ems’s relationship. Relaxed, hot—in all senses of the word—and oh-so-easy.
But now we were back in Ealynn Sands with a sharp smack of reality, which meant work. The interviews for the Head of Software role I’d been headhunting for were this week. I met with each candidate face-to-face to discuss any last-minute niggles and worries, often meaning I didn’t get home until after nine most nights. With the early starts to get into the office in Bristol and late evenings, I’d barely seen Ems properly since we’d been back.
As predicted, I also had an invitation to join the Lane & Parks annual golf day. I still hadn’t confirmed my attendance, and Barbara was harassing me on almost an hourly basis because she needed to confirm numbers with the course and the hotel. Fraser was going, so I wouldn’t be on my own. Getting that kind of face time with Robert Lane was important to me, but I also knew my golf game left a lot to be desired.
“We can get a few rounds in before the event,” Fraser offered when I’d called him for some advice.
“Thing is…” I let out a hard breath. “I don’t really like the game. I’d rather stick pins in my eyes. Playing with my dad was fun and all, but I’d prefer to be in the gym.” That was the truth, although I’d let that slip this week too.
“Can’t say it’s top of my list either, but since I can’t play rugby any longer, it has to do.” Fraser had suffered a bad ankle injury at the end of last season. On doctor’s advice, he’d given up rugby and turned to other activities instead. I was still trying to convince him to come to the gym. “Seriously, Mason, just tell Barbara you’ll go. If you don’t want to play when we get there, you can make up some kind of excuse. Not saying it’s an exclusive invite or anything but turning it down might be career suicide.”
His words rang in my ears for the rest of the afternoon until my meeting with Janine at the end of the day. We hadn’t spoken properly since the conference, except for a few snatched conversations about how my various assignments were going. It wasn’t quite appraisal time, but it was getting close, so I guessed the meeting was a precursor to that.
How things had changed. Prior to going on secondment, the thought of a meeting with Janine filled me with dread, thinking it was going to be bad news or she was going to bawl me out over something. But now, given how popular I appeared to have become across the company, my whole mindset was different.
“Do you want a coffee?” she asked, as I came into her office. “I was going to send my PA out for something for me.”
These past few weeks had taught me I needed to be more organised, and I was getting there. But having someone else get coffee would be a godsend, maybe one day if I got a promotion. Plus if I had caffeine now, there was more chance of me being awake this evening after I’d seen another candidate and been to the gym.
