Page 92 of A December to Remember
“For what?”
“For coming here.”
“Thank Star for being a pushy mare. That woman is tenacious when she’s got a bee in her bonnet.”
“Remind you of anyone?”
“I don’t think any of those apples fell as far from the tree as you North sisters like to think.”
Simone smiled and snuggled in closer.
“You tired?” asked Evette.
“Why?”
“I was thinking we should take advantage of this awfully big bed again.”
For the firsttime in a long while Simone slept through the night without wakefulness or nightmares. She had missed Evette since she’d been in Rowan Thorp, but now that they were back in each other’s arms, she realized she had been missing her for a lot longer than that. Over the last year, they’d been living simultaneously together and miles apart. She wouldn’t let that happen again. Their path toward becoming parents might be unclear, but she would make sure they never lost sight of each other again.
A patter wokeStar. A dripping tap? A branch against a window? A shower of little skitters against the glass. This better not be Stu again. “For fuck’s sake!” she shouted. She jumped out of bed, threw back the curtains, and wrenched open the window in one smooth movement, shouting, “What!” against the wall of cold air.
“I don’t care!” blurted a man’s voice.
Her world tilted. Not Stu. Duncan. She gulped in a lungful of frozen night.
“Duncan!” Hope oxygenated her blood and catapulted through her veins.
His face was so earnest it made her knees weak.
“What I mean to say is, I don’t care if you don’t want to have children in the future. And I don’t care that you want to be a surrogate for Simone. I only care about being with you. I will stand by you and your decisions. I’ll rub your feet when you’re too pregnant to reach them, I’ll hold your hand while you’re inlabor with your sister’s baby, I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you. I just want us to be together, to see where this takes us.”
“Why?” She couldn’t help wondering what had caused this sudden assertion.
He smiled shyly. “Because I love the way you see the world, your positivity and endless hopefulness that people can be better than they are. You makemelook with better eyes. I feel awake when I’m with you in a way I’ve never been before. I love that you look for magic in the mundane and how you shine when you find it. I want to search for magic with you. You are kind and principled and strong-willed to the point of ridiculous and you’d move the moon and stars for the people you love. I’d like to know you, Heavenly-Stargazer.” He looked up at her imploringly. “Is that enough? I can go on. I’ve got so much more!”
She was dumbfounded. She clapped her hands to her mouth to stifle a laugh of joy. Her heart was beating so fast, she could feel the pound of it through her skin.
“Am I too late?” Duncan asked. “Please tell me I’m not too late.”
“You’re—no—you’re not too late,” she managed to stammer.
He smiled. “Then come down here,” he urged.
She flew down the stairs in a dream, running to the garden gate in bed-socked feet and yanking it open.
Duncan walked slowly toward her, and she waited. Excitement pulsed through her. When he was so close that the steam of their breath mingled, she said, “I’ve got bed breath.”
His chuckle was low and deep as he looked into her eyes. “Ireallydon’t care.”
He bent to kiss her lips. They kissed slowly at first, tenderly, his hands cupping her face while she snaked her arms aroundhis waist. But they’d missed each other over the past couple of days, and quickly a hunger awakened between them that couldn’t be satisfied with gentle kisses. Their breath came harder as they pulled and pawed at each other, frustrated by the clothes between them.
“Get a room!” someone shouted from an upstairs window above one of the shops.
She giggled, burying her face in Duncan’s chest.
“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” he said.
She looked up at him and smiled.
