Page 96 of The Secret Mistletoe Promise
‘Is this real?’ Dexter ran his thumb along her cheek, and Imogen wondered if her tears had already started falling.
‘If you’ll have me, and Lucy and Artichoke will, too.’ She turned her head. ‘Can I be a part of your family, Lucy?’
‘Yes!’ Lucy shouted. ‘Yes please! Artichoke says yes, too.’
There was a smattering of applause, a lot of cooing and ‘aaaahs’, and Imogen realized she didn’t mind that their attempts at rehearsing had been terrible.
‘Lucy says yes,’ Imogen told Dexter, even though he’d heard. ‘What do you think? I know it won’t always be easy, but—’
‘Easy is overrated,’ Dexter murmured.
‘I’ve always thought that.’ Elation bubbled up inside her.‘I like to make things as difficult as possible, for that very reason. Not always, but …’ She grinned at him, and found the courage, the confidence, to say it. ‘I love you, Dexter.’
His smile was brighter than a thousand electric tealights. ‘I love you, Imogen. Thank you for letting me ambush our performance.’
‘Pretty sure we were bombing, anyway.’
She leaned in and kissed him, and Dexter returned it, his hand cupping the back of her head, his lips soft but firm against hers. Imogen felt another earthquake inside her, except this one was bigger, and it was all around her, and she realized it was the audience, clapping and cheering and stamping their feet. Then there were murmurs, and confused exclamations, and another sound that reminded her whatshehad planned, even though Dexter’s declaration had made her forget about it entirely.
‘Baaaaaaaaah!’
Dexter broke their kiss, glanced down at the same time as she did. Felix was standing on the stage just in front of them. He trotted forwards and nibbled Dexter’s shoelace.
Dexter looked around the room. ‘Harry? Sophie?’
‘Sorry Dex,’ Harry called from somewhere near the back.
‘This is out of our hands.’
‘Finally given up trying to control him, have you?’ someone shouted.
‘Hang on.’ Dexter crouched down. ‘He’s got something …’ Imogen’s pulse pounded erratically as he extracted the scroll that was attached to Felix’s jumper – a jumper that was navy blue with silver threads. Imogen would have thought it was the most incredible coincidence, if she hadn’t also known that Birdie was responsible for all of Felix’sjumpers, and that she’d shown her gran the outfit she was planning to wear today.
‘What is it?’ she asked, and if anything proved that she was good at voices but that acting was generally beyond her, it was this moment.
Dexter glanced up at her, amusement and happiness shining in his eyes. ‘You—’
‘I think you should open it,’ she said, then remembered what she’d written. ‘But you really don’t have to read it out.’
‘OK.’ Dexter stood up and unrolled the piece of paper, the blue ribbon that had tied it dangling from his fingers. ‘I mean, you can if you want to. This ismygrand gesture.’
‘Dear Dexter,’ he read, and glanced at her, waiting for her approval to continue.
She nodded.
‘Dear Dexter, I don’t know how to put into words all the things I want to say to you. I decided that actions were better, except every grand gesture I came up with also included words. So I’ve tried to combine the two, and if you’re reading this now then it means Felix has broken the habit of a lifetime, done what he was supposed to, and delivered this to you. Anyway, I’m getting off track.’ Dexter gave her a look of such affection, such genuine love, that Imogen thought the memory of it would sustain her for the rest of her life. ‘I am so sorry I spoke to Edmund,’ he continued, ‘but I needed him to be OK. I needed to apologize to him, to explain myself, because without that I didn’t think it would be fair to ask anything of you, so …’ He stopped, then said,‘I don’t think I need to read any more of this out.’
‘Oh, go on!’ someone shouted.
Dexter shook his head and took Imogen’s hand. ‘We can’tshare everything. Even in Mistingham, there needs to be a little bit of mystery.’
‘Besides,’ Imogen said, ‘I already did a speech. He beat me to the whole romantic gesture thing, and his was better anyway—’
‘Don’t let Felix hear you say that!’ Harry called, and Imogen rolled her eyes.
‘—And the only thing you need to know,’ she continued, ‘is that we’re on the same page.’
‘Exactly the same page,’ Dexter said. ‘Sharing the same scene.’
