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flirtation.
    His eyebrows drew together. “You look worried.”
    Mara shook her frown off and laughed. “No, just thinking about how lucky I am.”
    “With the house? Yeah, it’s actually sort of surprising Jenny didn’t suggest it before today. She’d probably given up trying to sell it.”
    “That too.” Mara tilted her head to one side. “But that wasn’t what I was thinking of. How’d I end up with you, Neil? Why’d you ask me out?”
    Neil’s eyes crinkled as he smiled, and he raised his hand to caress her cheek. “You were sitting under the big elm in the park and reading Emma . I couldn’t get over how beautiful you looked. It took me at least twenty minutes to get up the courage to ask you out, you know.”
    Heat rose across Mara’s cheeks. She couldn’t keep herself from leaning into his touch. “And you’ve stuck with me ever since. Why? I’m broken. I have enough baggage to fill a freighter plane. I yell at our realtor. But you—you have all of your crap together—you could have any girl you wanted—”
    “I want you.” Neil’s eyes, sweet and firm, captivated Mara. Perfect conviction laced his every word. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman before. When I’m near you, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
    Mara closed her eyes and nuzzled his hand. “Stop being so nice.”
    “Only when you stop being so loveable.”
    That made Mara chuckle. “Want to get out of here?”
    “I don’t mind, but what about your pancakes?”
    “Yeah, I’m pretty certain that waitress is going to spit in the batter. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER SEVEN: Relocation

    Breathless Jenny turned out to be a surprisingly staunch ally in Mara’s fight to move house. With her rental contract ending with the month, Mara’s days were filled with phone calls to arrange inspections, pay taxes, chase up forms that were moving sluggishly, beg for expedition whenever it was possible and, of course, the eternal search for a new job.
    They cut it close. Mara was on the last day of her contract when Jenny dropped off Blackwood House’s keys with an anxiously whispered, “Good luck, honey!”
    Mara waved to the hot-pink car as it crawled out of her alley then opened her fist to grin at the tarnished, rusty key. My own home. It may be a dump, but it’s my dump.
    She fished her mobile out and left a message on Neil’s phone while she climbed the stairs to her apartment. He was at work and likely wouldn’t finish until late that afternoon. Mara would have to be patient. She needed his car to move her few possessions.
    Mara wiggled the doorhandle until it opened, and entered her room for the final time. It felt incredible that, after four years, she’d finally have a house of her own. The incessant sacrifices and innumerable cut corners had paid off.
    She owned very little that she wanted to take with her besides her wardrobe. Just her phone, toiletries, a collection of gifts from Neil, and a small bag of tinned food she’d bought to get her through her first day at Blackwood. She hadn’t seen the building since the inspection two weeks previously and didn’t want to commit herself to any large purchases until she had a better feel for what she needed.
    Mara crossed to the window and sat in the small plastic chair. She tried to immerse herself in an ebook on her phone to pass the time but couldn’t stop checking the clock every few minutes. After half an hour of futile half distraction, she put the phone down and leaned on the sill to watch the alley. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the silver car parked at the curb below. Neil. He must have gotten my message and left work early.
    The car wasn’t idling, which meant Neil was coming inside. Mara grimaced as she turned around. In the six months they’d been dating, Mara had never invited Neil into her room. She’d seen his house; his family wasn’t quite wealthy, but they were very comfortably upper-middle-class, and their home