‘What do you want to be now?’ she asked, trying to shift his hawk-like focus from her.

He frowned, confused by her question. ‘I am what I want to be now,’ he said, only he didn’t quite look as certain as she thought he should.

‘An app developer?’

‘A very rich, very successful app developer, thank you,’ he replied, full of that familiar false arrogance of his.

‘You don’t want more?’ she couldn’t help but ask.

‘Do you?’

Yes. Yes, she did. She wanted him. But instead of responding, she clamped her jaw shut for fear that she might actually speak the words.

Henry hadn’t lied when he’d told her how expressive her face was. He suddenly wished he’d been so very wrong, because he could see the desire shining in her eyes. Could almost feel the beat of her heart against his chest, across the foot of air between them. Would have sworn on the Bible that he could taste her on his tongue. Sweet, citrusy … like coming home.

Home.

The word echoed in his mind. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed that he hadn’t answered her question about wanting more. Because until a month ago, he’d not wanted for anything. But in the last few weeks, something had begun to change. It was as if she had cast a spell over him. When she’d confessed that she’d wanted to be a mother, he’d known it, seen it, felt it. Just as much as he had when he’d imagined her pregnant with a child only a few weeks earlier.

White picket fence, house overlooking the sea.

He had those things. Well, not the fence, but still. But could he offer her more? Could he offer her himself? A man so haunted by the past he was determined to sell the very thing he would profess to offer? This time it was his turn to shake his head, cast aside the thoughts filling his mind and heart, before he could be tempted to beg, to plead, to ask … to take.

‘So what’s stopping you?’ he said into the quiet that had descended over the room.

‘What do you mean?’

‘What’s stopping you from having what you want … the family?’

She looked at him as if he were a little mad. ‘I have a few things on my plate at the moment.’

‘So clear the plate.’

‘It’s not that simple, Henry.’