Page 76 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

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The next morning, Bea wrapped her hands around her mug and smiled out at the view. Blane was inside taking a shower after breakfast, and she’d come out here to take it all in. Her first morning in her new life; she was finally here. She glanced back over her shoulder at the house. There’d been times when she’d thought she wasn’t going to be able to pull it off, but everything had come together in the end. She was here. The things she needed with her were here. And… the part she hadn’t planned for. The part she would never even have dreamed of, if she were honest—Blane was here too.

She wasn’t going to examine that too closely. She was just going to make the most of it. She shifted in her seat. They’d certainly made the most of it last night. She gripped her mug a little tighter as she remembered Blane suggesting they should go back to bed. She’d wondered at first if he had more sex in mind, but that hadn’t been the case. Lying there beside him, his arm around her, whispering about nothing, teasing, and joking in the darkness had been just as good.

He’d even made a joke about not being up for twice a night at his age. Her smile faded a little when she remembered what had come after that. He’d been kind about it when she admitted that twice a year hadn’t happened for a while for her. And even when she’d watched him do the calculations after she told him that twice a decade was probably an optimistic description of her love life with Simon, he hadn’t pitied her. He’d simply wrapped his arm around her, held her closer, and somehow made her laugh.

She couldn’t even remember what he’d said now, but that was just one of the many surprising, wonderful things about the man. He knew when humor was needed to take the pressure off, and what possibly surprised her most was that laughter seemed to be part of almost everything between them.

She came back to the moment when he appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Fresh from the shower, his hair still damp, wearing another pair of impressively well-fitting Wranglers and a pale blue T-shirt stretched over his muscular chest, he was almost enough to make her consider delaying the trip to the bakery and the garden center to see if she could persuade him back upstairs instead.

He came across the terrace to her, a knowing smile on his face.

“What?” she asked, trying to sound innocent.

“Just thinking I know what you’re thinking.” He smiled without even needing to fight for it. “Was thinking the same thing myself.”

When she stood, he wrapped his arms around her waist, then slid one hand down over her backside. A shiver ran right through her, and she looked up into his eyes.

He chuckled.

“I didn’t realize that was what the extra pair of hands was for.”

His eyebrows rose.

“Last night,” she said, because apparently, she was going to make herself say it.

His mouth twitched. “Told you they might come in useful.”

“You’re quite pleased with yourself, aren’t you?”

“Kinda, yeah. But you researched this bakery, so we should go see it.” He looked around at the weeds and rubble. “And then there’s the garden center. We should get going.”

When they were back in the little white SUV, she clung to the door handle and braced her other hand against the dashboard as he drove down the hill.

“I’m on the right side of the road,” he told her with a smirk.

“I know, but the road seems much steeper and more winding now that I’m facing the fact that I’ll have to drive it every day.”

“Thought you planned to walk.”

“Only until I get a car. I need to do something about that at some point.”

“Want to get onto that today?”

“No, not yet. Not for a couple of weeks. I want to get the hang of things first.” She turned to him. “I don’t want you to think I need you as a chauffeur, though.”

He shot her a quick look as he brought the SUV to a stop before pulling out onto the main road. “I know you don’t need me for anything, darlin’. I’m just happy you’re letting me tag along.”

When they reached the bakery, it turned out that Blane had as much of a sweet tooth as she did. While she asked for baklava, he studied the displays of pastries, and the woman behind the counter offered them samples. It was quite something to watch the pleasure on his face as he worked his way through them.

By the time they left the bakery, they had far more pastries than either of them needed, and by the time they’d finished at the garden center, the back of the little SUV was filled with everything Bea had decided she needed to make a start.

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Instead of parking out on the road when they got back to the house, Blane drove a little farther down the lane and pulled through a gap in the wall that looked as though it used to hold a gate.

“Oh.” Bea looked over at him. “Do you think this is okay?”