I sighed, shaking my head.
Sean’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“It’s not enough.”
Sean looked down at me incredulously. “I’m standing on the edge of a balcony, kissing you; I spent seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars on your hotel; and it’s not enough?”
I shrugged. “I was kind of hoping for naked cartwheeling. The balcony’s been reinforced, you know, I think it could take it.” I grinned.
Sean shook his head. “There is only one girl in the world I would stand on the edge of a balcony for.”
“And do naked cartwheels?”
“That too.” He nodded.
I laughed. Hmm. I might have to hold him to that one day. “Wow,” I said, “you must really love me.” It blurted out before I could stop it. My playful smile faded as the words hung between us.
Sean’s eyes ticked over my face in a long study. I thought he wouldn’t say anything, that mercifully he mightn’t have heard me, but then he broke the silence.
“More than you could ever know.”
Epilogue
My feet dangled in the cool, murky lake water as I sat on the deck, chewing thoughtfully on the end of my pen.
My brow creased as I re-read one of the sentences I had written. My concentration was quickly interrupted by the sound of running and the whoosh of a six-foot-three torpedo somersaulting past me and bombing into the lake, spraying me with a shower of water.
“Sean!” I screamed, trying as best as I could to protect my paperwork.
His head broke through the surface and he flicked the excess water from his hair like boys tend to do. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“You’re such a bloody child!” I said, glaring.
Sean stroked over to me, his cold, wet hands making me gasp as they latched onto my legs.
“You looked like you could do with a cool down.”
“It’s not funny, Sean, you’ve wet all my enrolment forms for uni,” I said, blowing on the smudged writing.
I had left it until the last minute to fill in my transfer papers, but it hadn’t exactly been in the forefront of my mind lately. Well, not until it had finally become clear to me what I wanted to do with my life. Inspiration comes in all sorts of strange forms and, although nothing had immediately changed with Sean buying the hotel, there were some developments that had been pretty exciting.
I had joked with Sean that he was now my boss and how he was sure to get a real kick out of that fact, but when he had in all seriousness shrugged and said, “I’m going to need an interior decorator,” my heart had spiked with approval.
Now that I could do.
Bringing the Onslow into the new century was a passion Sean and I shared. I could help him with ideas and he was a skilled enough contractor to do the big work himself. So when we had joked that I should do this for a living, it had been a total light bulb moment. So here I was, filling in transfer papers from my uni in the city to the Maitland campus, only half an hour away, where I could study interior design. It was perfect.
Sean kissed my knee before lifting himself effortlessly out of the water to sit beside me.
“Sorry,” he said earnestly, a small dimple creasing his cheek when he smiled.
I shook my head. “Damn you, Sean Murphy.”
Sean’s brows rose in surprise.
“You make it so hard for me to stay mad at you.”
He broke into a boyish grin, before leaning forward to kiss my neck.
“Good,” he whispered into my skin.
I squirmed against the sensation.
Sean leaned back, his eyes sparkling with delight. “It’s been an interesting day.”
I wasn’t the only one who’d had a moment of self-discovery recently. Sean had been approached by the president of the Onslow Tigers to coach the seniors; he’d got to reconnect with his love for the game in a different way. This season I could already see myself sitting in the stands, freezing my butt off, barracking for the Onslow Tigers, and I couldn’t wait. I played down my interest with the odd taunt about how the Perry Panthers were going to dominate the season. Sean just shook his head – these days, rendering him speechless was so easy.
“Of course! I forgot. How was the meeting?” I shifted with interest.
“It was just a short catch-up; the real one will happen next week,” he said, playing with the frayed edge of the towel I sat on.
My eyes narrowed. “You were gone a long time.”
Sean shrugged. He closed his eyes and linked his hands behind his head. “Oh, I just had to run some errands. The funniest thing happened.”
“Oh?” I straightened.
“Mmm. I dropped into Roy’s hardware to pay an account.”
I froze, my eyes widening.