FOLLOW YOUR HEART

Chapter 30 - An Awkward Position

Camila awoke and stretched, looking out at the snow-covered gardens, still in awe of it. It had been falling for days, not that she and Shawn cared. Tally, who had gone to visit his daughter, had left them with dishes to reheat, there was plenty of firewood plus the central heating if they needed it, they were all set to be snowed in, and they had enjoyed it. They had barely left their bedroom except for meals, it had been a sweet and romantic time.

"There are only four more visits after this one. We need to decide what to do with the Hall."

"Who to sell it to?"

"Or whether to sell it at all," Shawn said. "It should be George's after all, I feel bad selling his inheritance away from under him."

"He doesn't want it, and Garry didn't want him to have it either."

"I know but..."

"We have four months to make a decision, let's just leave it for now."

"What did you want to do instead?" Shawn asked, rolling on top of her. She sighed and put her arms around his neck and bending his knees so he was cradled against her.

"I have no idea, do you?" she rubbed his nose with hers and grinned. He moved a little and her eyes widened. "Oh, I think I DO have an idea now!"

Afterwards they showered and dressed in warm and comfortable clothes for wearing around inside. Camila went down to her room and looked out at the expanse of white. The lakes were frozen, the secret garden was locked up tight, the garden shop had been closed since November. She felt Shawn come up behind her and he slid his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.

"It makes me miss Canada," he said.

"We could go back to Toronto for a little while after this..." Camila said wistfully. "Live in your condo, go shopping, play house..."

"Or, we could do more than play..."

"What do you mean?" she asked, slowly spinning her promise ring around her finger.

"I mean, why don't we officially start living together. Wherever it is, LA, Miami, Toronto, here..."

She turned in his arms. They had been pretty much doing that, but he was talking about it, he was making it official. She stared at him. She loved him, she loved their life together, she wanted a future with him. Was she ready to take this step?

"OK," she said, smiling up at him. "Yes."

He looked so happy she couldn't help grinning and he picked her up and spun her around. "Are you sure?" he asked, putting her down and caressing her cheek.

"Yeah, I am actually. Are you?"

"I wouldn't have asked otherwise," he said, kissing her softly. "I love you, you make me so happy."

"I know what you mean, I'm happy too, I love you."

They were quiet for a while, thinking of what this meant. In the big scheme of things, probably not much, they'd been doing it anyway, living in the same house in whatever city they were in, but this was different, this was moving stuff in, this was calling it "our place".

"Wanna go write some music?" he asked, and she nodded, smiling, and they went down to the drawing room where Shawn strummed his guitar, and they came up with some interesting chord progressions and she sang some melodies that he seemed to love, and hours seemed to fly by. They stopped to have lunch, and in the afternoon they FaceTimed their families and watched a nature documentary on TV, then ate dinner, and went to bed. This was pretty much the way their days went, it was a peaceful, private, few weeks. The weather cleared after the first week and they got out and about, driving the Range Rover Shawn rented this time rather than the Aston Martin. They toured castles and churches, the ones that were still open, and ate in little pubs and cute tearooms, they had their photos taken quite a bit and they didn't care. Back at the Hall, they wrote music, watched movies in the home cinema or on their laptops in bed, they played games and they made love whenever and wherever they felt like it. It was magical.