‘You think I look forty?’ he asked, and she laughed at the slightly higher key he used.

‘No, I just assumed by the whole too old for outdoor sex thing, you were maybe older,’ she clarified.

‘I have old rugby injuries that play up in the cold and during certain activities,’ he said with only a touch of defensiveness. So, she’d been right about the rugby thing. ‘Hey, I’m not judging,’ she said putting a palm up in surrender.

‘If you really want the outdoor experience, I can put up with a bit of discomfort,’ he offered.

‘No, it’s okay, but I appreciate the sacrifice you were willing to make,’ she added, hiding her smile. She actually couldn’t think of anything worse than trying to look seductive with twigs and leaves stuck in her unruly hair, or the insect bites she would find in unmentionable places for days afterwards.

They pulled up in the same spot he’d parked the day before at the arch, and again the significance of the place stole her breath away.

The afternoon light was just as beautiful as she’d imagined, the gentler glow casting a golden filter across the stone and making everything look magical.

She climbed out of the car and walked across to find the perfect vantage point, leaning against a smaller rock wall that she assumed had been built to keep animals out of the cemetery behind it.

As she sketched, she felt Stuart behind her, but she was so eager to capture the image before her that she didn’t worry about an audience. Nor did she consider that he was the very first person she had ever let watch her draw. Not even Gran had been allowed to see any of her sketches until they were finished.

As Elle pencilled in the last stroke, she suddenly realised the sun had begun to drop low in the sky, and as time once more became relevant, she turned to look up at Stuart with a concerned frown. ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise how long I’d been drawing for. You should have said something.’

He glanced up from the page and looked at her with a strange look that she found hard to read. ‘I had no idea when you said you enjoyed drawing you meant like this,’ he said with a slow smile. ‘It’s amazing.’

A blush crept up her neck and she quickly packed away her pencils and closed the sketchbook. ‘Thanks,’ she murmured. She thought about telling him about her sketches that had sold, but it was too new, and it felt a little like boasting—and part of her still found it hard to believe the sales had actually happened.