Page 165 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

She stared at him.

“I couldn’t do that to you, Bea. I didn’t know what I could give you yet. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t gonna ask you to put your life on hold while I worked it out.”

Her hand came up to cover his where it rested on her knee. “I really thought you simply walked away.”

“I know.”

“And all that time…”

“All that time I was watching you.”

She swallowed hard. “Well, that’s rather ruined six weeks of perfectly good self-pity.”

He huffed out a laugh and rose to his feet, pulling her with him. “Good.”

She slid her arms around his waist and rested her cheek against his chest. For a while, neither of them said anything.

Then Blane looked toward the courtyard. “You know what this place still needs?”

She leaned back far enough to look up at him. “Oh no.”

His eyebrows lifted. “What?”

“I remember that tone.”

“What tone?”

“The one that resulted in you deciding my perfectly lovely courtyard was deficient because it didn’t have a swimming pool.”

His mouth twitched. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Still think you don’t want one?”

She laughed. “I told you, I don’t need one.”

“Didn’t ask if you needed one.”

She went still, because that line landed somewhere deeper than swimming pools. Then she smiled. “No. I suppose you didn’t.”

Sifis barked sharply at their feet.

Bea looked down at him. “Oh dear. Apparently, he has an opinion as well.”

“Good. He can help me pick the spot.”

~ ~ ~

“No.”

Bea straightened up, and Sifis shot to the corner of the room, fleeing the harness she’d been trying to fasten on him. “I beg your pardon.”

Blane huffed out a laugh. “Sorry, darlin’. Didn’t mean to be short with you. But come on—you’re not really going to put that thing on him just to come for a walk, are you?”

“But Blane, it’s the first time he’s been out with us on our morning walk. He doesn’t know the place, and he’s terribly inquisitive. I’m worried he’ll wander off and we won’t be able to get him back, that’s all.”

Blane came and curled an arm around her shoulders. “Look at him, Bea. You really think he’s going to run off with that thing on his head?”