AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“After?”
“After I've had my fill of you. I'm okay with it being us for a little bit longer. We have time to make up for.”
I'm on board with that.
“After it is, then. I want to start practicing now, though.”
“Yes.”
“Yes, you want to practice now?”
“And yes, I want to marry you.”
37
Claire
“No, tell me what you'd do differently.”
“I don't know. Give me a chance to think about it.”
We're sitting in a pub in the south of England and I can't help thinking about Brody's and comparing it in pros and cons to where we are. The place we're currently sitting in has a wonderful outdoor garden and live music, which could liven up Brody's. Dylan is leaning on the table, studying me, seemingly more than a little interested in my ideas of improvements for the bar he worked at for most of his adult life.
“Sounds like you've been thinking about it a lot.”
Yes, I've been thinking about it. Most nights we've spent in the UK has involved a pub and any fellow Aussies we've bumped into – of which there are many – and every night I've found myself comparing where we are to the bar back home. I've seen some things that could take Brody's from a popular bar to one in a league of its own.
“I don't know why you're so interested. Are you planning on implementing any of these changes when we get back?”
“I'm just a manager there, Claire. And I don't know if Rufus will want me back.”
“From everything you've said, he'd be crazy not to. You're one of Brody's biggest assets.”
Not that I could handle him going back and flirting with anyone in that place for the sake of business anymore. But I wouldn't have to worry about that now that we're getting married.
Nerves and excitement blend in a potent cocktail that makes my stomach backflip.
Dylan wants to marry me. For the past month, I've been walking on air, and it doesn't seem like I'll stop floating anytime soon. My friends called me out for not having enough fun months and months ago, but I'm not that version of myself anymore. It took all my courage to leave everything behind; my job, my friends and family, but where I've landed with Dylan...I'm having the time of my life and I'm not sure why I've resisted it for quite so long.
Taking this chance with Dylan is as if I've jumped out of that aeroplane again and this time I'm taking the time to look around and enjoy the scenery while I challenge the limits of my life. Playing it safe only led to failed relationships and a boatload of misery. I was so busy trying to control the outcome of my life that I lost sight of why I was doing it all in the first place.
I was so caught up in what I thought I wanted that I didn't see I was living a life I didn't want. More importantly, I ignored my desire for the man in front of me and tried to replace it with desire for something material. None of the men I dated would have made me happy long-term.
“I'm pretty awesome,” Dylan says, smirking at me before his expression changes. “He really wanted me to buy the place from him.”
“Well, it's something to think about.”
Dylan's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, making me giggle.
“Is it really that much of a crazy suggestion?”
Dylan's told me how much money he has saved in the bank. I nearly fell over at the time. So many times in the past, I'd thought him reckless and frivolous. Perhaps that was because of my desperation to push down my feelings for him and to make sure I never wished for something I couldn't have. Whatever my reasons, I didn't see him properly in those days. Not only is he a hard worker, and an excellent manager – reliable and good at hisjob – he is also a saver like I am. True, he'd been saving for this world trip, but he knew how to put the coins away.
“Is it crazy? Maybe not. I just thought...”
“Thought what?”
“I thought you'd think that's money better spent on a house.”
