Taking her hand, I held it to my chest. “We can take all the time you want, Julia. I’m already positive you’re the one for me.”
Her lovely hazel eyes were slightly darker in this light. “I feel the same way. I’m just a bit nervous.”
“There’s no reason to be. We’re together, and everything’s going to be amazing. The hard part is over.”
“What was the hard part?”
“Finding each other,” I said, dropping tiny kisses along her forehead.
She leaned back an inch, tilting her chin up. “You don’t think the hard part might be telling Dad?”
I tilted my head from side to side while making grumbling noises. “We’ll tell him slowly. Leave him little breadcrumbs so he starts to guess, then I’ll tell him.”
She didn’t seem convinced. “Okay. But I still have to learn more about you. This is going to be a process, not an instantaneous declaration.”
Taking her hands, I lifted them to the back of my neck, then began to waltz us around. “Fine. Anything you like. May I buy you some luggage this week?”
“Huh? Why?”
“I want to make sure that you have everything you need when we finally travel to Europe. It sounds silly, but really top quality luggage makes everything easier. I can also send you an expert to teach you all of those packing secrets.”
She was looking at me so strangely. “Packing secrets? You don’t think that’s a bit over the top?”
I shrugged, running my hands in gentle circles around her lower back. “When I started traveling a lot, I hired an expert to get me all of the gadgets and organizers and travel size things, and show me how to put together a week’s worth of clothing that I could mix and match so that it would all fit in one small suitcase. It’s been super handy.”
Julia blinked rapidly, then smiled. “I guess. The thought of being so spoiled has never occurred to me, is all.”
“Spoiled? No. Making everything as smooth and convenient as possible? Yes.” I gave her a swift kiss on the lips, then brushed my mouth against the tip of her nose. “But I am going to spoil you too, sweetheart. Everything you could ever dream of.”
I would never get tired of her lovely soft laugh.
“I guess my dreams are pretty simple,” she said. “I want to do really well at work, get promoted to manager as quickly as possible, travel a little, and once I feel that I’ve conquered my job, I’ll think of new ways to be even more productive.”
“What would you do if you won the lottery tomorrow, and had a hundred thousand dollars to spend?”
She stared up at the moon thoughtfully. “I suppose there are a few tiny things, but I’m not going to tell you because I have the feeling you would just run out and buy them for me.”
“Is that so terrible?”
Those perfect lips opened and closed a few times as she almost spoke then changed her mind. “How about for the moment we just say it’s too early ?”
“Okay.”
; Holding her against me, I kissed her softly at first, then felt her snuggle tighter against me as her lips parted. The passion that resonated through every kiss was driving us both wild.
“We’re on your schedule, sweetheart,” I said, taking her hand to walk back to the house. “I could drive you home now, or you could stay late to watch a movie and cuddle on the couch. Whatever you like.”
“I may have said to Dad that I was having a movie night,” she said with a hilarious shifty-eyed glance. “He naturally assumed that I was staying with Olive.”
My hand tightened around hers. “Are you saying that you want to spend the night?”
“Yes.”
“May I take you to the bedroom, and lay you down somewhere more comfortable than the back of a town car?”
Julia smiled, blushing slightly. “Sure.”