Always Fraser by A. Steel (electronic reader .txt) 📕

I want to jump into his arms, run my hands through his hair, while he kisses me.

“They left last week for a new adventure up the coast.”

“It must be nice to be able to pack up and leave, just go wherever you feel like, whenever you like.”

“Yeah, it suits them perfectly. It was nice to have him home for a while, though, I needed it more than I knew.”

“Yeah, I bet. I’m glad you had that time with them. Are you guys good with each other after everything that happened?”

We have stopped walking now and stand side by side looking out over the water. If I make eye contact with him, I’m gone, I just know it.

“Yeah, we’ve talked it all through. We're as good as we can be. It's never going to be perfect, but I’m lucky to have someone who cares about me so much. He’s such a good man. I only hope I can be as good a dad as he is one day when I have kids.”

I look over to him; is he serious? “Fraser Davis thinking about having a family one day. Who is this psychologist? And what has she done with the boy I once knew?”

His eyes come back to mine and his face softens a little. “It's time to grow up, Elly. The last month has been really hard, but it’s what I needed, and now I've got a really clear vision of what I want for my life.” He offers me a smile. He’s looking like his old self again.

He sits down on the sand and pats the spot next to him for me to sit with him.

“I’ve got something I want to show you. I hope you're as excited about it as me. I’m nervous to show you in case you're not.”

“Nervous? You're never nervous about anything. What is it?”

“Yeah, but this is something I really want to work.” He pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through. “It's this.” On the screen of his phone is a photo of an empty block of land.

“What is this?”

“You know how much you loved the town of Broken Point when we were working on the townhouses there? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I saw this come up for sale. It's a couple of blocks back from the beach and on a massive plot of land, it's perfect.” He looks up at me, his grey eyes melting the walls I’ve put up.

“It looks great! Are you boys doing a new development there?” I say excitedly.

“I bought it,” he smiles sheepishly.

“Are you serious? This looks amazing, I’m so happy for you, Fraser, this is exciting. So I guess you will be designing your place to put on there? I knew Blake wanted to build his own home, but I didn’t know you were looking to settle in one place.”

“I’ll be designing our own place to put on the block. I bought it for us, Elly. I’ve been saving for quite a while, and now I have someone I want to do this with. We can build a home for us to live in. I know I said I would wait, and I will wait as long as you need, but you're the only one I see in my future, and I’m kind of hoping this will be the start of a new life for us. A life where we work together so we can both be happy. So, I’ll do the architectural designs, but I want you to do the interiors so we can design it together.”

“For us? I don’t know what to say. I’m in absolute shock!” I take the phone from him and look at the block again. He bought this for us?

“The block can sit there as long as we need, we don’t need to rush into anything if you're not ready for it.”

I have no idea how to process this. I sit looking at the photo of the block on his phone again. Is he serious, a block of land for us to build our dream home on? I should be angry with him for making this decision without me, but I’m not. This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me, not buying the block, but making the commitment to our future together, and he did it knowing I could reject him. I can't help it, my face breaks into a massive smile.

“So I take it, by the smile, you’re happy? I did the right thing?” He looks so nervous, still waiting for me to reply.

“Yes.” I wrap my arms around his neck and bring our faces together. “Yes, good decision.” Our lips meet, and our kiss is perfection. God, I have missed him. His stubble brushes my face as my hands roam through his hair. He swipes his tongue into my waiting mouth. I hear a couple of kids laughing, and I’m suddenly aware that I’m now straddling him, in the middle of the beach, on a Sunday morning. A bit too much for the poor passers-by. I shift away and stand up, pulling him with me. “Come on, we should get back to the others.”

“Elly, what's this?” He runs his finger over my wrist.

“Oh, that, um, it's a little coffee cup.”

“Why do you have a tattoo of a little coffee cup on your wrist?”

“It's a long story, but Indie’s got one too. It's kind of a bestie thing.”

He raises his eyebrow at me. “That surprises me less because she's covered in tattoos. I can't believe you got one, even if it is small, the way you are with needles.”

“It wasn’t a pretty sight! But luckily it was over quickly. I was very brave,” I say, laughing.

He runs his finger over it again. “I feel like I’ve missed so much over the last couple of months. I’m so sorry, Elly.”

“It is what it is. It's all done now, so let's just concentrate on the future. Come on, we better get back to the rest of them.” I