Page 84 of Trophy
“Oh, I would love that. Please do,” Tari said with a smile.
Rob had drawn his brows together in a questioning look at Allison.
She gave a little shrug. “You seemed to enjoy it that night on my birthday. You might as well play a little for fun. I love to hear you.”
“We do too,” his mother added.
Rob sighed, looking sheepish in that way he had but also rather pleased.
It wasn’t a big gesture. It was only a little thing. His mother had told Allison that he’d played and sung all the time when he was married the first time, but he’d stopped after Marie hadstarted cheating on him and he hadn’t picked up the guitar since. She assumed he had bad memories associated with it, and she wanted him to have new ones, better ones, now.
So Rob sang “Be Thou My Vision” and “It Is Well with My Soul,” and his mother was in tears at the end of it.
When he’d finished, he put the guitar back in its case and reached out to wrap his arm around Allison. He gave her a quick kiss, and she was sure he understood why she’d asked him to sing.
“You know,” Tari said with a smile, “your father wrote a song for me when we were courting.”
“He did not!” Rob replied, staring in surprise at his dad.
“Nah,” James said.
“He did too! He’ll never admit it, but I still know all the words. It was the most romantic thing.” Tari gave Rob a teasing smile. “You should considering doing something equally romantic for your young lady.”
“He already does,” Allison said, giggling when Rob gave her a warning poke. “You should see the notes he writes me every morning after breakfast.”
“Does he really?” His mother’s eyes were wide. “I never would have believed it. Love letters?”
“Not really. They’re just little notes on napkins. But I guess, put together, they have ended up as a love letter. I have them all, even the very first one he wrote me.”
Rob was groaning, exaggerating his displeasure at this discussion of his romantic habits, and James was chortling softly.
“Didn’t you think he was fresh,” Tari asked, “writing you note like that when you didn’t even know him?”
Allison looked up at Rob. “I thought he was amazing—and that he had the kindest heart I’ve ever known. I still do.”
Rob’s face softened, although he leaned down and whispered, “Don’t lay it on too thick. They’ll never believe it.”
After his parents left for the evening, they stood on the front step waving them off, and then Rob took her into his arms as soon as they walked inside.
“What are you doing?” she murmured, responding immediately to his touch.
“I’m loving you,” he replied, just a little thickly. “Is that all right?”
“It sounds good to me.”
He just held her in his arms, standing in the entryway of her house.
Eventually she looked up at him and smiled. “I saw Keith today in Dora’s. He said he still owes you a hundred bucks.”
“Would you tell him to shut up about that?”
“Well, you won the bet, didn’t you?”
“I won something a lot better than the bet.”
Allison had absolutely no objection to this sentiment, and she made it clear to Rob with a kiss.
So Rob spent the rest of the evening loving her, and it was like nothing Allison had ever dreamed of before she’d moved to this little town last year.
