He reached round behind him and pulled out a small silver box wrapped in a big white bow. She’d been so caught up in the fact that he was there at all, she hadn’t even noticed him bring it inside.
‘For me?’ she asked.
He nodded.
She opened the box, realising she had no clue what kind of gift a man like him, a man who knew everyone, who could get his hands on anything, would…
‘Oh, Cameron.’
On a bed of soft silver paper lay a mobile phone. It wasn’t gleaming, new, expensive, complicated and demanding—it was simple, easy, and just retro enough for her to fall in love with it in a heartbeat.
She ran her fingers over the big, bumpy buttons. ‘Oh Cameron, she’s beautiful.’
He slid the phone from her hand and she whimpered. ‘What’s beautiful about it,’ he said, ignoring her, ‘is that I’ve programmed it already with all the numbers I could think of that you might need in the near future.’
She snuggled in beside him so they could look at her beautiful new-old phone together. ‘Show me.’
He showed her. ‘There’s the planetarium’s number. Adele’s. I tracked down the number for your supervisor in Houston.’
Rosie lifted her head to stare at him.
‘I had many hours to kill last night, remember.’
His cheeks pinked—tough, sharp, skyscraper builder Cameron Kelly pinked—then dragged her back into his arms.
‘Meg, Dylan, Brendan, and my parents are all there.’
She blinked. It was as if he’d known how much that would mean to her. It was as if he knew her better than she even knew herself.
‘And last but not least,’ he said, ‘Press the one button then send.’
She did, and up came the first number on her speed dial. His mobile number, and the name Cam.
No fanfare. No dibs on himself. No Mr Cameron Kelly, esquire, builder of skyscrapers, Prince of Brisbane. Just her self-assured guy who knew her and loved her, and wanted to be the first person she’d ever think to call.
Rosie looked up at him and said the first words that came to mind. ‘Will you marry me?’
He tilted his head to kiss her, slow, soft, deep, for ever, before saying, ‘It would be my pleasure. How does tomorrow sound?’
She smiled against his lips. ‘Fabulous. But I’m sure we have to register, and it takes like a month in case we change our minds, and—’
‘First, I’m not changing my mind. Once I commit to something, that’s it. And, more importantly, I’m a Kelly. I can do whatever I want.’ He grinned. ‘I knew one day that would come in handy.’
She moved to kiss him some more, but he edged back.
‘One problem. You’re going to have to get a bigger caravan. I’ve seen your current bed and I’m far too big for it.’
‘That’s okay,’ she said, turning away to bury her head into his shoulder while she scrolled through her chunky phone’s limited options. ‘I don’t think I can live another winter in the van now that I know all about that fireplace in your house. Even if you’d said no to marrying me, I was thinking about squatting. The place is so big you might never have noticed.’
Cameron grabbed her phone and threw it on the far sofa, where it bounced once and landed face up on a cushion.
‘Well, thank God you did that,’ she said, turning into his arms to kiss him. ‘I didn’t have the heart.’
The next time she came up for air, Cameron looked so deep into her eyes she felt like she could happily drown in them.
‘I promised myself,’ he said, ‘if you turned me away at the door today I’d let you go. But I was kidding myself. If you’d slammed the door in my face I would have climbed through the window, down the chimney, up a drain pipe, to get to you. Not because I’m used to getting my way, but because I can no longer picture my way without you there beside me.’
‘That’s lucky. Because that’s right where I plan to be.’
Air was overrated, Rosie thought as she settled back into his embrace. Kissing Cameron was not.
By the time Adele got home an hour later, the house was empty. And the two full coffee cups were on the coffee table. Unnoticed, untouched.
It seemed the couple they were meant for had been far too distracted to remember anything but one another.