“I’ve never asked a woman to marry me.” He slid a hand behind Anna’s neck and drew her forehead to his. His breath warmed her lips while the ring slid down her finger, snug, not tight. He exhaled and opened his eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you, Liam.”
It was her turn to cup his face and sink into the fire-flecked depths of the brown eyes she’d grown to love. There. She’d said it, and she’d felt it. She’d been feeling it and had probably dropped those feelings into one of the ever-present boxes littering her house.
“We can shop for a real ring, together.”
Anna shook her head. “This ring feels very real.”
When she looked at him, her eyes were clear.
“But here’s the thing.” She pulled at the quilt, once comforting, now constricting, and invited him to sit next to her. “And please, hear me out.”
Liam nodded, two bright, red-flushed spots coloring his cheeks.
“I can’t say yes to marrying you, not yet,” she said. “I had a wonderful marriage the first time around, and I would never compare what I had with Gary to what I might have with you—or another man—but after five years of being a widow, I need…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t know how to finish her sentence. She had walked to the edge of her known universe.
“What do you need?”
She shook her head. “That’s the thing, Liam. I don’t know. I have some ideas, but it’s like I’m looking at a…a recipe book and someone tore out sections of the instructions and I could wing it and hope for the best or I could choose to make a different dish or…”.
Anna swiped at her face with the heels of her palms and let out a long, unsteady breath.
“I’m scared,” she admitted. “I don’t want to keep doing what I was doing the way I was doing it, but I’m not completely sure what the next step looks like if the next steps include a relationship.”
She twisted the wooden ring circling her finger, pulled it off, and toyed with it, her thoughts elsewhere. The long silence was broken when Liam cleared his throat to speak.
“I was at the cottage with the MacMasters the other night. I contacted them about renting it again, and they were coming to the island to check on it anyway, so they met me there. They asked a lot of questions about what I thought they could do to update the place. I’m not sure if they’re thinking of putting it on the market or if they just want to get more rent during the summer season, but I told them I’d be happy to make some suggestions.”
“Does this mean we’re going to be neighbors again?”
“Yes. Unless you want me to move in here. Or go back to New York. It’s your call.” Turning to face her, he reached for her fidgeting hands and quieted them between his own. “What do you want, Anna? What do you…fantasize about?”
Loyal clients and steady work. Healthy, happy kids. World peace.
“You’re hoping I’ll say I fantasize about you, aren’t you?” She could do better. She could reach deeper.
A clean house. A fresh start. A chance to share her heart.
Liam smirked. “Yes, that’s a given. But I want to know what you’re thinking about for your work life, your creative life, travel, all that.”
She leaned back, crossed her arms over her chest. “Seeing Daniel in Mexico reminded me that, once upon a time, I wanted to be an artist.”
“The work you do now requires creativity,” he pointed out.
“Somewhat, but not really.”
“You’re right. I was thinking I have more creativity in my work, but still, people come to me with specific things in mind. When I came here on sabbatical, one of my desires was to find my creativity again.”
“And did you?” she asked. They were spiraling away from the primary question, but she wanted to hear more about what he wanted too.
“Yes, I found something. And since being back in New York, all my ideas are stuck between the covers of my sketchbook.” He glanced at the woodstove, leaned past her knees, and added another log. “What if we could help each other find the thing we’re missing,” he asked, sitting beside her, “the thing we miss, the thing that’s driven us, that once drove us? What if I moved in next door and worked on my ideas and courted you at the same time?”
“What would happen to your business?”
“I’d have to go back regularly, I imagine, but when I’m here, there are no interruptions.”
“I beg to differ.” Courting required interruptions, for shared meals, walks, and explorations in the pursuit of sexual ecstasy. She would tape a list of her courtship requirements on their respective refrigerators if that would help.
“Let me amend that. There would be fewer client interruptions.”
“We’d have to make clear lines around when we can be interrupted and when we can’t.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed.
“And my first grandchild is due soon, so I already know I’ll be taking trips to Toronto.”
Liam nodded again. “I can water your plants and feed your animals.”
“I don’t have houseplants or pets.”
“I know,” he said, beginning to grin. “I can also lift boxes, chop wood, and keep you supplied with fresh pasta.”
“You’re trying to tell me you’ll take care of things, right?” Anna’s body warmed, and the rise in her internal temperature had nothing to do with the fresh log he’d just added to the fire.
“Right.”
“And you’ll let me take care of things too?”
“Absolutely.”
“And you won’t pressure me to marry you?”
“I won’t pressure you, but I retain the right to ask you again.”
Anna stared at Liam and spilled the quilt into his lap. She got off the couch and walked to her bedroom, returning with a jewelry box. She lifted the lid and removed the top tray, setting them side by side on the low table, next to their two mugs.
The jewelry arrayed
