“Watch it. I might think you really like me,” I murmured against his lips.

“I do,” he muttered back. “And I’m not giving up on you now, princess.”

“That works for me.” I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and kissed him. “I never did ask what made you follow me.”

“Really, now?” He looked down at me.

I nodded. “Now. Then I’ll stay all night and you can have your wicked way with me.”

“The least sexy thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Mm. Give it time. There’ll be something else.”

He chuckled and sat up. “My grandpa.”

“What? How?” I shuffled back and met his gaze.

“With everything, I wondered if I could make you happy. If anything I could give you would ever be enough.”

I opened my mouth to assure him it would be, but he pressed one finger to my lips.

“He told me that if I didn’t think I could then I had to let you go. And he was right about that, but he told me something else.” He slid his finger from my lips to cup my chin. “He told me that happy people aren’t happy by chance, that they go out and find happiness. That they search it out knowing it could go wrong. They make it for themselves.”

My lips tugged up.

“He told me that happy people take risks.”

“He sounds terribly wise,” I said softly, smiling.

“I’m not admitting anything,” he replied with a gentle laugh. “I… I was scared I couldn’t make you happy. That’s why I held back. Out of everything, the one thing I never want to do is disappoint you, but I realised that night I would never make you happy if I didn’t try.”

He was just a big softie, wasn’t he?

“So I invited you into my greenhouse and saw how happy it made you. Then you saw the dahlia, and that made you happy, so I gave it to you, and you were even happier after that. Then you pinched out bloody tomato suckers, and I’ve never seen anyone as happy to do that as you were.” Miles was laughing every word out. “And I realised then, when you were smiling over tomato suckers, that it was all worth it. All the risks that it wouldn’t work, however big they were or however many risks they were… You’re worth it all, Gabriella. Every single one.”

“I don’t care about all the things you think I do,” I replied. “I really don’t. Please trust me when I tell you that I would be just as happy in this cottage, with you, as I would be at Arrowwood Hall. And with all those things, all the things that made me happy, it wasn’t really that you let me in the greenhouse, or you gave me the flower, or you let me help with the tomato plants. It was you. Just you. Anytime you’re worried that you can’t make me happy, don’t be. You don’t need to do anything to make me happy. You just need to exist, Miles. That’s enough for me.”