28. Henry

Chapter 28

Henry

Casper and I cleaned up after the delicious lunch Saskia made for us, then he hit the road. It wasn’t as awkward as I thought it might have been, all cordial handshakes and hugs bringing an end to our time together.

The house has been quiet since, but not in a bad way. Saskia and I move around each other with the ease of a couple who’ve been together for a long time. She prepares snacks, I top up wine glasses, and we sort puzzle pieces into piles at the dining table.

“Are you missing him?” she asks quietly, as the light outside fades to inky purples and blues.

“Oddly, yes, but I’m also delighted to have you to myself at long last.” I reach out and steady her hand. “In fact, I think it’s time we talked.”

Saskia’s back stiffens, panic written all over her face. It makes me even more nervous to tell her what I’ve been mulling over all morning.

“Actually, can we sit on the sofa? The other side of the table feels a million miles away.”

We move and settle side by side, but I adjust her position, lifting her legs over my lap and taking a deep breath.

“So this trip hasn’t exactly gone the way I thought it would.”

“I know,” she says, her head hanging low. “I’m sorry. The whole thing with Casper. He… I didn't—”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” I tell her. “It was just unexpected. I figured you and I would get reacquainted. Slowly. That we’d have a wonderful week together, then I'd fly home, and we'd spend the next year or two going back and forth between New York and London.”

“You don’t want that?”

“No. That's not an option for me now, and I knew that even before Casper turned up. I knew the second you opened the door on that first night, I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye.”

She looks straight at me with tears pricking at her lashes.

“Oh darling, don’t cry.”

“I thought you were about to tell me we don’t stand a chance together. That this weekend was too much, and I'd scared you off.”

“Too much? You're the perfect amount of everything, my love.”

Her breath catches in her throat at the term of endearment.

“Is it OK to call you that? Because it’s true. I love you, Saskia. I always have, in so many ways, but now I’m all in.”

“I love you too,” she says, pushing my hair back and tipping her lips to meet mine.

When our tongues collide, we shift to lie side by side on the sofa, and soon we are a tangle of limbs, pouring ourselves into each other, hands roaming and tugging as we strip out of our clothes. I pull her to the floor and we spend the best part of the evening making love right there in front of the fire.

“Here's what I think should happen,” I tell her afterwards, snuggled up in blankets on the sofa, with her head on my chest. “I'll wind things up in Manhattan and move to London.”

She props herself up on her elbows. “But you have a whole life in Manhattan.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I have part of a life. The other part of my life is you, and it's always been missing. We can visit whenever we like, and I'll get my own place in London, so I won’t be imposing on you.”

“No,” she says firmly.

“No?”

“I wouldn't want you to get your own place. We’ve wasted enough time.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “So I'll move in with you, and then I think perhaps we should join forces. Create a new art powerhouse. Hatton Stone.”

“Hatton Stone?” she smiles, biting the side of her thumb. “I rather like that.”

“So do I. And I know the ink is barely dry on your divorce papers, but I’d love if that was our name someday, too.”

Saskia’s face falls. “Do you want kids? It’s been a long time since we’ve talked about it.”

“I don’t want anything you don’t want.”

“It’s not that simple.” She tries to pull away, but I shift positions to cradle her in my arms.

“Maybe with Casper it didn’t seem that simple, but it’s that simple for me. Nothing in the world matters to me more than you and your happiness.”

She looks up at me with those wide blue eyes I know I want to spend the rest of my life getting lost in.“You’d give it all up for me?”

“In a heartbeat. I only ended up in New York because it was so painful to stay and see you soar with someone else by your side.”

“Oh, Henry. Why didn't you say something?”

“What kind of friend would that have made me? I would never have stood in the way of your marriage. Which is why I won't dance around this any longer. I want to be with you, and I'll do anything to make it work, darling. You’re my everything. The very best gift of all.”