“And we’ll be so boring no one will take our photograph.”
“But... your transfer...”
“Withdrawn,” she said. “Thanks to Lucía and a few of my closest clients.”
Kane wanted to shout from the rooftops. Instead he whispered, “You could have said that first!” She glared at him and pointed at the whiteboard. “Okay,” he conceded. “Boring dates.”
“Right. And then,” she finished, fixing him with her hardest stare, “we are going to get married. And you’d better be on board with that because it’s...”
Her voice had been commanding, but her cheeks betrayed her; they flushed pink, got pinker the longer he looked at her, and she faltered. “Non-negotiable,” she finished in a whisper.
Kane folded his arms—then unfolded them again when his IV pulled on his hand—and shook his head.
“No?” She looked horrified.
Kane could have prolonged the moment, given what she’d put him through the day before, but he took the whiteboard from her and wrote something on it.
He turned it around for her.
Marry.
Me.
Now.
Her eyes spilled over with tears, and she pressed her hand to her mouth the way he loved, as if she’d ever been able to hide her emotions from him.
• • •
Ellen was finally allowed to take him home on Christmas Eve. His lungs would still take some time to heal. His voice might always have the slight crack he’d acquired, and his back would need anti-inflammatories for a few days yet at least. But he was better, and sick of hospital food, and Cat had threatened them both with coal in their stockings if they didn’t make it over to her house for Christmas.
Ellen was so worried about his back that night that she put just about every cushion he owned behind him as he sat in bed. They drank champagne and fell asleep watching It’s a Wonderful Life, and on Christmas morning Ellen woke up at six o’clock to call her parents.
She’d spoken to them, of course, when Kane had gone into the hospital, when it had become clear she wasn’t going to be home for Christmas. But she hadn’t shared their other news.
Kane was still blinking the sleep out of his eyes when she fired up the computer. “Merry Christmas,” he said, kissing her. “Can we go back to bed now?”
“You’ll be fine,” she said, patting his leg under the covers. To her, he looked fantastic, with his hair rumpled and his eyes darker than usual with sleep. He’d lost some weight in the hospital, so that his cheekbones were more prominent than usual, but generally he looked good enough to eat, which she was going to take care of as soon as they were done with this phone call.
Kane pushed the computer so it didn’t face him anymore and disappeared into the bathroom. When her mother answered, Andrew wasn’t the only one with her. Her brother, sister-in-law, and nephews were all beaming through the screen as well. “Happy Christmas!” they all yelled, or at least, all but Charlotte.
“Happy Christmas,” Ellen echoed back, astonished at how being so content in her own life made her so much fonder of everyone else. “I’m sorry we’re not there,” she said, and meant it. “Hi, boys! Wow, you’re so big! What did Father Christmas bring you?”
“You sound different,” said Oliver, while his brother Rhys began a detailed explanation of his Lego hoard.
“That’s ’cos I haven’t had enough Olly and Rhys time,” she assured them. “I miss you!” And again, she meant it.
“How’s the Yank?” asked Adam.
“Much better, thanks,” she said. “He just got out of hospital yesterday.”
“Good; that’s good to hear,” said Andrew. He was wearing a joyfully hideous green jumper with red bobbles all over it. “So what are your plans today, darling?”
She gave him a clean version. Kane came back into the room just as Jen, Adam’s wife, said, “So, come on, where is he?”
“Right here,” Kane said, sitting down next to Ellen. The lock of hair that fell into his eyes was wet. He gave her family the hundred-kilowatt Fielding smile. “Nice to meet you all.”
Ellen looked at him, felt the heat of his shoulder and arm against hers as he leaned in to get in the shot, and had never been prouder of him in her life. Even more so when there was a tiny moment of stunned silence, and Charlotte put her hand to her throat and cleared it, ever so slightly.
