It could remain her own secret. What a beautiful secret. The money could sit in the bank accruing interest, awaiting some fine purpose, a trip around the world, maybe. She wanted to tell him. As soon as she got things figured out. Really she did. But it wasn’t the right time. It was her money after all. “So you’re serious about going to Rome,” he said. “I heard about what you said at the luncheon. Eloise is all up in flames about it. Calling people left and right. You’re going to have a planeload. I’ll bet you’ll get three hundred people now.” She put an arm around his shoulder and said, “If there were three thousand people, I wouldn’t notice, so long as you came with me. This is for me and you. That’s the only reason I want to go. I love you and I think we need to do something nice for ourselves.” Carl looked away. He didn’t always respond well to pure feeling, especially loving sentiments, and that was why she so seldom expressed them.
