The third column, ‘What Trig Wants’, stood ominously blank. The cut and paste option had never been more tempting. Instead, Trig opened up a new file and prepared to give his future some serious thought.

      Half an hour and half a dozen words later, Trig decided that he was a man of action rather than words. Fifteen minutes after that he was in the car, heading for Damon’s beach house and Lena.

      Lena woke to the sound of someone pounding impatiently on Damon’s front door. She squinted at the bedside clock and groaned. Five twenty-two a.m. She’d waited up last night until almost one a.m. Waiting for a reply from Trig that had never come. He hadn’t emailed or called. She’d finally caved and called him, only to find that his phone was out of range or turned off. Why hadn’t he called? Because he wasn’t mean like that. Thoughtless on occasion, yes, but never mean. Lena’s eyes drifted closed.

      And the pounding started again and this time her brain kicked into gear and she sat bolt upright. Who else would be at her door at five-something a.m.?

      Her body didn’t want to hurry down Damon’s long hallway but where there was a will there was a way and Lena made it to the door in record time. She unbolted it and opened it and there stood Trig, his smile brighter than the sun. The dark stubble on his face and the rumpled business shirt minus tie only added to his appeal.

      ‘I brought croissants,’ he said. ‘They’re still hot.’

      Lena had to move to see past him, but eventually she spotted his car. ‘You drove here overnight?’

      ‘It’s not that far.’

      ‘How much coffee did you have?’

      ‘I lost count,’ he murmured and dropped a kiss on her unprotesting lips as he sailed past her. ‘Consider me wide awake.’

      He headed for the kitchen, Lena followed. ‘You drove here,’ she said again.

      ‘The planes were too slow.’

      ‘So you drove here.’

      ‘You’re not quite as awake as me, are you?’

      Guess not.

      ‘You said you loved me. In an email,’ he continued as if she’d just shredded his favourite kite sail. ‘I’ve decided to forgive you for that, by the way, but I needed to be here in person to give you my reply. Because that’s how it’s done. In person.’

      ‘Oh.’ Lena tried to hide her smile. She leaned against the kitchen counter with her hands trapped between her back and the counter, because if she reached for him they wouldn’t talk and he sounded like he needed to talk. ‘I thought I’d already told you that I loved you in person,’ she offered dulcetly. ‘I remember it distinctly. It was right after you proposed the second time. Or was it the first? Or does that time not count because I thought we were already married and you knew we weren’t.’

      ‘It counts.’ Trig scowled.

      Lena smiled.

      ‘For someone who looks so angelic, you’re really good at torture,’ he muttered.

      ‘You love it,’ she said. ‘You love me.’

      ‘I do.’ Trig reached behind him and pulled from his pocket a crumpled sheet of paper. He unfolded it and it turned into two crumpled sheets of paper. ‘It’s your list of what you want.’

      ‘Where’s yours?’

      In my head. He scanned the paper. Nodded a couple of times.

      ‘I don’t want to quit ASIS,’ he said. ‘I may even want to take the occasional field job. When the kids arrive I aim to retire from fieldwork and carve out a place for myself in operations review. Turns out I’m good at it. That okay by you?’

      ‘Yes.’ Just because she didn’t want a man as careless with his life as Jared was, didn’t mean she wanted a placid man who played everything safe. ‘That’ll work.’

      ‘Good.’ He returned his attention to the paper in his hand. ‘I have a couple of adjustments to make to the poolside plans. I want Turkish tile trim, a retractable roof and a marble mermaid on the steps. And fairy lights.’

      ‘Because, why not?’ she murmured.

      ‘Exactly. And much as I want Jared at my wedding, I’m not going to wait another nineteen months for him to come home. I say we send him an invite to our June wedding and see if he turns up.’

      ‘June, you say. Okay.’ She could be a winter bride. ‘Give him an exit date to aspire to.’

      ‘Puppies,’ Trig said next, and Lena smiled at his priorities. ‘I want to get them from the pound and they must, when grown, stand at least knee high. I will train the puppies not to crush the children. All children and puppies will think I’m the boss.’

      ‘You always did like a challenge.’

      ‘So true. I want to honeymoon at Saul’s Caravan, and this time we’ll do it right.’

      ‘Perfect,’ said Lena.

      Trig tossed the paper on the counter and stepped in close, his hands either side of her, his eyes smiling as he pressed his lips to the curve of her mouth. ‘Do I need to propose to you again?’

      ‘I think you do.’

      ‘You want the moon and the stars again?’

      ‘And the turtles. And Saturn’s rings.’

      ‘I knew you liked that one best.’

      ‘Well, you always remember your first.’

      She wound her arms around his neck and kissed him, then. Savouring him. Loving him. She reached