Falling (16 page)

“Now that's a bold move,” says Deb, looking from one to the other. “We can definitely all see you've progressed from the landlord/tenant relationship now.”

“No.” Dominic shakes his head. “I do this with all my tenants.”

“It's true,” says Emma, leaning back into his body, marveling at how solid and safe he feels. “It was in my lease.”

They all laugh.

“Seriously, though,” says Deb, with delight. “The two of you are a couple?”

“We're a beginning,” says Emma, and at the same time Dominic says, “Yes, we're a couple.”

Emma pulls away and turns to look at him. “Are we? Are we a couple?”

“Aren't we?”

“We haven't even been on a date!” she says. “Well, except for that farm dinner—but that wasn't official because I invited you.”

“That counts!” says Dominic. “Anyway, we've found plenty of other things to keep us busy . . .” He grins.

Sophie claps her hands over her ears. “Too much information,” she says, before removing her hands. And then she glares at them in mock outrage. “What do you mean, you haven't been on an official date? A real, formal ‘man asks a woman out' date? What have you been doing?” Then she laughs. “No, don't answer that! You must go on a date! It's terrible that it hasn't happened.”

“It's all been a bit more organic than that,” explains Emma. “We've just sort of fallen into a relationship. We've kind of gone beyond dating.”

“Bullshit.” Sophie turns to Dominic. “You need to take her out for dinner. You can drop Jesse off with us and I'll babysit him. He can even sleep over.” She winks. “Go somewhere nice. Wednesday night?”

“Sophie!” Emma starts to laugh. “I don't even know if I'm free on Wednesday night.”

“Trust me,” she says. “You're free.” Then she looks at Dominic. “You don't work at the Hen until Thursdays, right?”

“Right.” Dominic grins.

“So now you both can go on your first official date. Take her somewhere you love. Don't go to a place that's trendy or cheap. You're welcome.” She turns away with a smile. “Honey?” she calls out to Rob. “Can you bring me another glass of wine?”

“I don't even know anywhere trendy,” Dominic says to Sophie. “What does that even mean?”

“It means somewhere that opened up in the last year that's filled with very glamorous people who are overdressed and filled with their own fabulousness. They tend to be very loud. Don't take her anywhere like that.”

“I don't know anywhere like that.” Dominic feigns horror. “The restaurants I go to—when I go to restaurants at all—have been here forever. They're small. And cozy.”

“Perfect. Take her somewhere like that.”

L
ove. Does he love me?
Is this the real thing?
Emma moves around the kitchen, cleaning up her house before she gets ready for her date, pausing with shock and surprise.

I love him,
she thinks, her breath catching in her throat before a slow smile of wonder settles on her face.
I love him.

She couldn't tell him. Wouldn't tell him. It would be too risky, would make her too vulnerable—what if he is frightened away?

She is certain, though, as she puts the dishcloth down and moves to the bathroom, that she does love him. For a long time now, Emma realizes, she has been worried about her capacity to love. She didn't love Rufus, the only other man she was supposed to have loved. She liked him very much, to be sure, but not in the way she needed in order to marry him. And her relationships in the years since have never blossomed into anything even close to what she's experiencing now.

Emma has never quite believed that love would happen for her. It certainly happened to others, perhaps just a few lucky people, but she had thought, had always known, she wouldn't be one of them. That kind of love wasn't going to happen to her, and she had accepted it.

And yet here she is. And it does seem to have happened. It is passionate, and sweeping, and dramatic, but in the most comfortable of ways.

I
know
you,
she thought, from the very beginning, when she first came to see the house.
I recognize you. Here you are.

Their relationship is ease and safety. It is quiet recognition. It is going on their first date together, after weeks of sleeping together. It is so easily starting to spend all their time together, virtually living together, so easily finding herself no longer worrying about what she looks like first thing in the morning. She makes the effort to feel beautiful now, secure in the knowledge that she doesn't need to, that he likes her whatever she looks like, even with terrible bedhead and pillow marks on her cheek.

She remembers having read something once about a psychologist who had spent years studying married couples, and who was able to predict very quickly whether newlyweds would stay together and be happy or see their unions end in divorce. His predictions were unerringly accurate.

He'd discovered that successful marriages boiled down to kindness. Not necessarily the obvious kindness, like bringing someone a cup of coffee in bed, although that was a lovely sort of gesture, and important. But what he pointed to was the kindness of attention. When one partner asked a question of the other, or asked for an opinion, or wanted to talk about a problem, in a successful relationship the other partner always stopped to offer their full attention. By doing so, they met their partner's most fundamental emotional needs.

The article had stuck with Emma. And in the weeks since she's moved in, she hasn't been able to stop thinking about it. The couples in disastrous unions, this psychologist said, were constantly in fight-or-flight mode. They were verbally or sometimes physically combative, always preparing to attack or be attacked.

Looking back, her relationship with Rufus had indeed been combative. They would verbally spar, jousting with words and sarcasm.

The relationship with Dominic is different, not just because he is from such a different world. There is true kindness in their interactions. She thinks about how even when she met him that first day, looking at the house, he had listened to everything she said, really considered her words and responded. Dominic makes time for her, listens to her, is calm, and steady, and so grounded that he makes her feel calm, and steady, and grounded, too.

So this is love,
she has thought over the last few days.
I was right.
It isn't a roller coaster of emotion, but rather a feeling of a kind of calm, a peacefulness.

And there is no doubt in her mind that she has come home.

Emma blows out her hair, then uses a curling iron to twist it into the loose curls that Dominic loves, the loose curls that make her feel feminine and beautiful.

She left his house this morning, telling him he couldn't come over until he was ready to pick her up for their date. She wants this to be a real date. She wants to feel excited, feel the thrill of anticipation, and she wants Dominic to feel it, too.

She has no idea where they are going, but Dominic said casual. Not too casual, though, she thinks. It is August already, almost the end of summer, and the evenings are warm. Warm enough for her to wear what she has chosen to wear all summer, the pretty linen shifts and loose printed tea dresses that make her feel feminine and pretty.

She chooses a strappy white linen dress tonight, to show off the deep, golden tan that has developed over the summer. Suede espadrilles with a small heel, a gold shark's-tooth necklace, and a sheer gray chiffon wrap.

The lightest touch of bronzer, shimmer on her cheekbones, gloss on her lips. They may have been together just a short while, but Dominic has seen her first thing in the morning. He knows what she looks like without all the accoutrements. She doesn't need to dress up for him, but it is nice to dress up for herself.
He loves me with or without makeup.
And then, midthought, she stops.

I love him,
she thinks again, getting up to leave.

•   •   •

The bar at Tarantino's is packed. Dominic greets a dark-haired man with a bro hug, and then they are led through the bar and into the restaurant.

“I reserved the quietest table we have,” the man says, taking them to one in the window, and laughing because nowhere in the restaurant is it truly quiet. “What can I get you to drink? Dominic, you want your Tito's martini?”

“Always,” Dominic says with a grin. “Emma?”

“Could I have a glass of Prosecco?”

“Coming right up.”

Emma sits back and looks around at the bustling Italian restaurant. “I love it.”

“I've been coming here forever,” says Dominic. “Sophie told me to bring you to my favorite joint, and this is it.”

“Do you know everyone in here?” Emma laughs as people look over to catch Dominic's eye and wave.

“Pretty much. The combination of being both Italian
and
a townie.
My family lived right here, in Saugatuck, for years. I went to school with pretty much all the local business owners down here. It's a tight-knit community.”

“What's Saugatuck?”

“A neighborhood. The best neighborhood.” He winks.

“Have you ever wanted to live anywhere else?”

“Never. This is home. I like that wherever I go, I know people. The whole town is filled with memories for me. I remember tearing around on my bike with a pack of neighborhood kids when I was young; I like that I grew up here when there was Bill's Smoke Shop, and the Remarkable Book Store, and Sally's. I don't have any wanderlust in me. I guess we're very different that way.”

“No,” says Emma. “Obviously, I left England for the United States, but honestly, I had never really felt at home there. Oh, don't get me wrong. My parents loved me. I'm much more like my dad than my mum—she doesn't understand me at all, and of course my dad was always at work while I was growing up, so I was left feeling like I must have been a changeling. Living in London wasn't much better, so I was happy for the transfer to New York. I lived in Manhattan for years, but I always knew it wasn't where I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I think I've found my place now. I'm really not sure I would ever want to go anywhere else.”

“I think we find our place when we make a decision to do what's right for us rather than always keeping everyone else happy. From everything you've told me, it sounds like you spent your whole life following someone else's plan. This sounds like the first time you've respected yourself enough to do what is right for you. And you're right, that's when we find our place.” He smiles.

Emma's heart lurches.
I love you,
she thinks, clamping her mouth
shut in a tight smile to make sure the words don't escape. “Cheers.” She raises her glass, instead, and takes a sip of her Prosecco.

“By the way,” she says, “I forgot to tell you. I ordered the trampoline on Monday and it should be here in a couple of days. Do you think we can put it up together?”

“I wouldn't have you do it yourself. Not when we make such a great team. Listen, thank you for buying that for him. I know he's struggled with you and me a bit, but hopefully it will all get better. I hope you haven't bought the trampoline to try to make him feel better about you, because I wouldn't want that.”

“I've thought about that,” says Emma. “I've worried myself about whether I'm subliminally trying to bribe him, but I don't know that I am. Honestly, he's just crazy about trampolines and every time we pass those kids in the house on the corner jumping up and down, he stares with such longing, it just breaks my heart. I really want to try to do something nice for him.”

Dominic smiles. “You're right. He has been talking about a trampoline forever, and he does stare at those kids every time we drive past. I can't believe you noticed that.”

“I can't believe you didn't buy him a trampoline earlier,” she jokes.

“I was waiting for someone else to pay for it,” he says. “Seriously, though, thank you. This is incredibly meaningful to me. And Jesse. That you would notice and then do something so nice.”

“It's my pleasure,” says Emma, as Dominic reaches over and strokes her hand. “I think he's such a great kid. This really isn't a bribe, but a part of me does hope that eventually he'll see I'm not a bad person.”

“I don't think he thinks you're a bad person at all,” says Dominic. “You have to remember it has only ever been him and me. I've been
very careful to keep any relationships I've had away from him. Gina never spent the night, for example. He's really had no experience of seeing me with anyone on an ongoing basis.”

“So why have you let him see
us
?” says Emma, in a tone of voice so light it doesn't give away what she is really thinking, hoping, wanting to hear.

“You know why,” says Dominic.

“I do?” Her heart skips a beat.

“Is it too early to say it?”

“Say what?” says Emma, whose voice catches in her throat.

“That . . . this. Us. Feels . . . right. It does to you, too, doesn't it? Feel right?”

“Yes.” Emma laughs to dispel her nervousness and her slight smudge of disappointment that he didn't say what she so wanted to hear. She pushes it aside.

Dominic's face is now serious. “I mean it, Emma. I don't know what it is about you . . .”

“Is it my English accent? My excellent teeth?” She bares them. “Is it my curls?”

Dominic laughs. “Why, yes. It is in fact all of those things, but more than that, it just feels . . . I don't know. Different. I feel safe with you. I love . . . being with you. It's the easiest, most comfortable relationship I've ever had.”

“Is it a relationship, then?” Emma says.

“Isn't it?”

“Yes?”

“Yes!” He wipes an imaginary bead of sweat off his forehead. “I was getting worried.”

The waiter approaches the table. “May I tell you about today's specials?”

“Thank God!” Emma looks at him. “Saved by the linguini.”

The waiter frowns. “We don't have linguini today.”

Emma shakes her head with a laugh. “Never mind. My mistake. Tell us what you do have.”

•   •   •

The food has been eaten, the wine has been drunk, and Emma and Dominic have not stopped talking all night. She has heard his stories. And she has shared her own.

“Did you know you liked me as soon as you met me?” she teases, late in the meal.

“Almost as soon as I met you. I didn't walk away thinking,
Wow, that tenant is super hot.
” He laughs as Emma makes a comically disappointed face, growing serious before taking her hand. “It was more than that, Emma. I liked being with you, from that very first time. Even when you came to look at the house, I kept thinking about you. I was so worried you wouldn't take it! And after you signed the lease, I found I really looked forward to seeing you. When I'd leave the house and come out to the driveway, I would dawdle a little, hoping you'd come out and see me.”

Emma is moved by his words, surprised that his feelings mirrored her own so exactly. The feelings that well up inside her are almost more than she can deal with, an explosion of happiness deep inside her belly. She has to lighten the mood, so she laughs again and says, “Oh God! I was doing the same thing. I'd hear your truck pull in and suddenly remember that I had to go to the mailbox.”

“Remember when you went to get the mail early one morning and I came over to talk to you? Oh my God. Your face!”

“I was devastated. It was the one time I didn't want you to see me. I'd just rolled out of bed and I looked terrible.”

“You looked adorable.” Dominic's eyes twinkle at the memory. “I think that was the moment I really started to fall for you.”

“Have you fallen for me, then?”
I love you,
she thinks.

He smiles. “Let's just say I like you.”

“I like you, too,” says Emma. “I really like you. I really, really like you a lot.”

The smile leaves Dominic's face as he looks at her. “I love you,” he says, serious now.

“Oh, thank God!” Emma bursts out, almost weeping with relief, before laughing at herself. “I'm sorry, Dominic. I'm so relieved to hear you say it. I love
you
. I love you, too.”

Dominic leans forward and kisses her, pulling back for just a second to look at her, smiling into her eyes before kissing her again.

“I wasn't expecting this,” says Dominic. “You. Us. All of it. I was happy to grow old with Jesse.”