Pulling my cap down, I burrow into Grace’s neck, tugging the blanket over both our heads.
“This is what you’re going to have to put up with for the rest of your life,” I tell our daughter while I slip her bangle on. “If she’s not drawing, she’s going to be taking photos of you.”
Grace yawns, pawing at my chest once I release her hand.
“You’ve sort of won the lottery. We both have. You get a great mummy, and I get a great wife.”
“What are you whispering about, big man?” Fleur crawls over my lap, popping her head under the blanket.
“None of your business.” I pull the blanket down, checking the bangle over before I lay Grace on the thick picnic throw.
She does that thing where she stretches. Her toes point and her hands go over her head, catching the sunlight in the perfect way.
Barely a fraction of a second goes past and my heart is beating so hard, faster than it ever has in my life, while Fleur is frozen, looking at me. I think she’s overwhelmed again because her eyes go bigger and wide as saucers. Her mouth drops as she trembles in my hold.
Say something, I silently urge. Fleur’s never been this quiet before. It’s not like her.
It’s only when Grace flattens her hand to her cheek, leaving the ring on full display, that she gasps for air.
Her eyes flit back down to the ring, hanging off the bangle by the thick yarn thread I tied to it earlier. I fully expect her to go for it, but instead she crawls closer.
Fleur has no interest in the ring whatsoever, and for a moment I think she’s going to let me down or something. I mean, she’s not saying anything, and her eyes are so wide that she could be terrified.
“Are you being sneaky again?” she asks. Her hands flatten on my thighs as she pushes up to level with me.
For a late-March afternoon, it’s warmer than usual, and her touch is so hot that it burns through me. I never want to live without it, or her. Fleur is everything I need. All I could ever want.
I shake my head in reply to her question. Sitting taller, I pull her up onto her knees, between my thighs so that she’s flush to me.
I’m not really sure whose heart I can feel hammering, mine or hers. Maybe both. Together. The thought makes me smile as I hold her as close and tight as I can for a beat or two.
My grandmother had offered to keep Grace so I could do this properly. But I don’t think it would be right without her. And as such, I twist Fleur to the side a tad so she can see our daughter too.
“You did good with her.”
Fleur looks down at Grace with happiness glowing in her face, the faintest of breezes ruffling through her hair. I inhale all I can of her into my lungs.
“Is that my push present?”
“I have no idea what that is, but no, it’s not.”
“Oh…” she breathes, tears glittering in her eyes as she swallows.
It takes me by surprise how overwhelmed I am by her right now. I’ve always found her beautiful. She’s unique, unlike anything I have ever seen.
Her eyes are so dark that even in the sunshine, they’re a deep chocolate brown, almost black. So much so that her pupils almost blend into her irises. Her nose is small and dainty but not turned up or sharp. Even her lips are a pretty shade of orange-tinged pink. They’re not big, but they’re plump and perfectly shaped.
“You know what it is, beautiful Fleur.”
She swallows again, because she doesn’t know how to take a compliment.
“Casper…”
“Writing that note when I left was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I wanted to tell you all the things you are to me. But it was hard because every day you mean something more.”
Her eyes fall to the ground, teardrops hanging on her thick lashes as she takes a large gulp of air.
“I don’t know why things happen the way they do. I never saw you happening to me even though I always saw you. Including when you thought you were invisible.