Jamie obviously felt this was unjust. “Kids are the only people I like!”

“I think it’s going well,” said Mika, watching his hand idly trace circles on her knee.

“I’m not surprised. It was a good idea, even if a part of me still wishes it was a good idea you’d executed far, far away.” He pulled a face. “If nothing else, I refuse to come outside and have Primrose observe me like a specimen beneath her microscope. She does it every single time. I don’t think she’s completely sure how I feel about you.”

“Out of interest, how do you feel about me?”

He rolled his eyes. “You know exactly how I feel about you.”

“You have to say it!” Mika said indignantly. “You read books! You know Swoony Words must be said! Words like You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Or like My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and—”

Jamie looked amused. “Do you know any romantic declarations that weren’t written by Jane Austen?”

“Well, they’ve been on my mind. You can thank Rosetta’s Captain Wentworth obsession for that. She’s about to move on to Mr. Knightley.”

“Is thank the right word? Or would blame be more appropriate?”

Mika sighed. Truly, this was tragic.

“Oh, well,” she said, cheering up. “You’re going to be stuck with me for a long, long time. I’ll get you to say it sooner or later.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, the smile he only ever gave her, the one that crept slowly into his eyes and lit them up like the sun. Her heart kicked in her chest. She’d never seen him look at anyone the way he looked at her. Who needed words?

She hopped off his lap and left him to his book, but before she reached the door, there was a thump as he closed the book and stood.

“If I loved you less,” he said quietly, the words no less true for the laugh that threaded through his voice, “I might be able to talk about it more.”

Mika spun around, cannoning into his arms. “I love you, too.”

“I know you do.”

“Does this mean you’ll come outside and meet everybody?”

“Reluctantly,” said Jamie wryly, “and with tremendous ill grace, but yes. I will.”

Mika smiled happily up at him, then leaned up on her toes to kiss him, slow and deep. “I’ll make it up to you later.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

So they went outside together, and Primrose did indeed scrutinize Jamie critically, and Hilda decided they were going to be the best of friends, and Altamira insisted on swinging off his arm, and Mika felt that the day was at last perfectly, wholly complete.

So, for that matter, was she.