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“Thanks,” he says with a smile.
We walk the rest of the way down to the carriage house in silence, but I notice right before we reach the front gate that he isn’t attempting to hide his right arm today. That’s something new and a great improvement. I wonder if I should mention it, but I think twice about that and decide not to.
Whatever the reason he feels more comfortable around me today, I don’t want to ruin it by drawing attention to anything that might make him feel awkward. If he wants to tell me about why he feels better about that, he will.
Like the gentleman he’s always been, he opens the gate for me, and I walk through. In all the times I’ve been to the estate, I’ve never been down here to the carriage house. It’s so much cuter up close.
“This is a really sweet looking house,” I say as we climb the stairs to the front porch. “I was just thinking that in as many times as I’ve been here at the house with you, I’ve never come down here.”
“That’s probably because when we were together, Ava, her brother, and her father lived here,” he says as he opens the front door. “Now Matthias uses it as an art studio since she lives up at the main house and her father moved down to one of the Carolinas, I think.”
I walk inside and see Matthias definitely has set the place up as a studio. “She mentioned her brother lives in Florida, I think,” I say as Ronan guides me through the house toward the back where the kitchen is located.
“Yeah, I think so. She said something about hurricanes one day. Okay, now out the back door. Sorry, about the half-assed tour of the house. I can show you the rest of it after we eat, if you want. I just don’t want the food to get cold.”
I nod and walk out onto the back porch before seeing what he’s done to the patio below. A round table with a white tablecloth sits waiting for us, complete with food in covered containers, a pitcher of iced tea, plates, and silverware. I’m touched he went to such an effort just for lunch with me.
“This is lovely!” I step off the last step and look at him behind me smiling. “You didn’t have to go to all of this trouble. Thank you, though.”
He always did know how to show someone he cares. I love that he hasn’t lost that with everything that’s happened to him.
“No need for thanks. I wanted us to enjoy ourselves. It was Eleanor who suggested I ask my brother to use this house for today.”
Pulling out one of the chairs, he waits for me to sit and leans down next to my ear. “I’m glad you’re here, Kate.”
I’m charmed and lightheaded at the same time. It’s been so long since Ronan and I have been together in any way that I want to believe this is the beginning of our second chance.
He sits down across from me and proudly lifts the cover off the platter in the center of the table to reveal shrimp kabobs with green peppers, onions, and mushrooms surrounded by white rice. It looks delicious and smells divine.
“Is that something sweet drizzled over the kabobs?” I say after I inhale a deep breath of that incredible scent coming off them.
Ronan leans forward and breathes it in. A smile lights up his entire face when he answers, “Yeah, I think Eleanor must have made that sauce I said I liked a while back.”
“This looks so good. I can’t wait to eat it.” I look at the white container next to that one and ask, “What’s in there?”
“It’s a surprise, but we can’t have it until after these. Let’s dig in so we don’t have to wait long to see what it is!” he says with such sweetness that I want to climb over this table and kiss him like I’ve been dying to since I first saw him again after so many years.
The two of us take a shrimp kabob and begin to eat, and the meal tastes even better than it looks and smells. The sweetness we recognized has to be honey, but there’s something else mixed in too. I don’t know what it is, but shrimp has never tasted so good.
Ronan lifts the pitcher to pour me some iced tea, but as he begins to fill the glass, it wobbles. I quickly reach over to steady it as a frown settles into his expression.
“I got it. No worries.”
He looks across the table at me and smiles. “Thanks. I thought I was going to ruin our entire lunch there for a second.”
“It wouldn’t have ruined it. This food is too good to stop for a little iced tea spill. You’d just be giving the ants a little treat, and what’s an outdoor lunch without ants?”
In his eyes, I see how thankful he is that I don’t care if he spills iced tea. He doesn’t have to worry. I don’t mind a little mess in life if I can have him too.
“So what have you been up to? I think you mentioned that you were traveling around Europe. Or maybe Ava told me?” he asks as we continue to eat.
“I was. It was so much fun. My friend Jessie and I went together, and I had the greatest time.”
He listens like I’m saying the most important words he’s ever heard and then asks, “Did you spend any time in Italy?”
“Yes!” I know I’m probably overly excited about my trip, but Italy was one of my favorite parts of it. “We went to Venice, which I loved, and then travelled to Rome and toured the Colosseum, the Forum, and all of the city. Then we went down to Pompeii to see the ruins. I bet we could have spent another two weeks in Italy.”
The whole time I’m gushing about how wonderful the trip was, Ronan gives me his undivided attention. It’s been so long since any man listened to my stories like this, but he always cared about everything I wanted to talk about.