And he really wanted to take her back to his hotel room after that.

But she was here in England in order to spend time with her daughter, and while he knew she liked him, and was pretty certain after that kiss that she was attracted to him, he didn’t know if she’d welcome him trying to monopolize all of her time.

But she was so bright and vibrant and sparkling; how could he not want to spend more time with her?

“Having fun?” he asked.

She looked around, a wide smile on her face.

“I love this,” she said. “Why haven’t I done this before in my life?” She laughed. “That’s a silly question. I don’t live a life where horseback riding is just a thing I can easily do. Not like going for a hike or to the beach or to get more avocados.”

He laughed.

“We live in very different worlds.”

How did this woman feel so familiar to him, despite their differences?

She patted the side of Polly’s head as they rode toward the trees in the distance.

“I confess, as easy as it would be for me to do all three of those, the last one is the only one I actually do with any regularity. I don’t go to the beach nearly enough, even though I’m happy whenever I’m there.” A reminiscent smile spread over her face. “A while ago when I got a promotion and some back pay, Maddie and I rented a house right along the coast for a long weekend, and it was so wonderful. All we did was lie on the beach and read books and listen to the waves move in and out and eat snacks.”

“That sounds heavenly,” he said.

She nodded and sighed.

“It was. Granted, it’s Northern California, so the beaches are often overcast, but I like the beach in any weather, even when it’s gray and cloudy. We said when we left we would keep going back, maybe on her birthday, or mine, but we haven’t done a weekend like that again, and it’s been . . . years.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why. Life gets busy, with so many things that aren’t actually important but feel important. And there are plenty of weekend days where I could decide to forget my to-do list, spend a few hours at the beach instead, but I’ve only ever done that if there’s a special occasion.” She looked at him and smiled again. “Life is short. I need to stop waiting for special occasions in order to treat myself.”

They rode into some trees, and he grabbed her reins and slowed both of their horses to a stop. She looked at him, startled.

“Now seems like a good time for one kind of treat.”

He leaned over and kissed her again. She laughed as she realized what he was about to do, but then she kissed him back. He held on to her waist so she wouldn’t worry about falling, and he loved the feel of her body. She moved her hand up to his face and stroked his cheek. He wanted to stay like this forever.

Finally, his horse twitched, and they laughed and broke apart. He couldn’t believe he’d kissed her twice where people could have seen them. Maybe even had seen them. And he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Kissing on horseback seems rather dangerous, Mr. Hudson,” she said.

“Not with experienced riders like me around, Ms. Forest,” he said. “I would never let anything happen to you.”

She smiled as they rode on.

“I usually like to be the one who wouldn’t let anything happen to me,” she said. “But a little bit of danger never hurt anyone.” She grinned. “Everyone at work would be shocked to hear me say that. I’m usually the cautious one.”

The sunlight made her face glow. How could anyone not smile back at her when she smiled at them like that?

“Well, you’re obviously very good at your job, so let’s just call this different attitudes for different parts of life.”

She laughed.

“How is it obvious I’m good at my job?” she asked. “I am, but we’re over five thousand miles away from it, so how can you tell?”

He touched her hand.

“The way you can talk to everyone, the way everyone likes you—Tim, Julia, James, the Duke and Duchess—and the way you’ve managed to get me to talk about myself, which I try to avoid doing at all costs.”

She looked down, then smiled up at him.

“Well. Thank you for that. And I’m probably so good at my job because I love it. Granted, it’s really hard sometimes—as a social worker, and especially a social worker at a hospital, you see so much of the bad parts of life. But I also get to see so many good parts, or funny parts, and”—she laughed—“so many of the ridiculous parts. But I love when I know I’ve made a difference for a patient—connected them with services they’ve been desperately needing, helped fight some of their fights with the hospital or their housing or their schools for them, or done some of the heavy lifting with their families. I work with so many families who want to be good for one another, but they just don’t know how, and it’s wonderful when I can give them the tools to do so.”

He liked how she talked about her work, with so much humor, but also kindness and warmth.

“It must get really tough, though. I’m glad you have this break.”

She nodded.

“I’m glad, too. I think I needed a break more than I realized. And honestly, it feels great to be this far away from work right now, with the potential new job and all.” She sighed. “It’s a big deal and more money and all of that, but it means I’ll get to do a lot less of the parts of my job that I love—less working directly with patients and their families, less coming up with ideas to solve problems to really help them. It’ll all be a lot more global solutions for all of our patients, which is good, too, just . . .”—she sighed again—“different. And it also means I’ll be working a lot more—always needing to check my email and to be available from wherever, all of that stuff I don’t have to do now. So it was good to take this vacation, since it might be the last real one I have for a while.”

She glanced around Sandringham with a wistful look on her face.

Malcolm suddenly had a ridiculous idea.

No, he definitely couldn’t do that. It made no sense.

Or did it? Vivian said she needed more of a break, didn’t she? And Miles was always telling him he had to be more spontaneous.

He looked over at Vivian and smiled.

On the walk from the stables back to Sycamore Cottage, Malcolm reached over and took Vivian’s hand. She blushed and looked away as their fingers intertwined, like if she didn’t see it happening, it wouldn’t be real. It had definitely been a while since she’d walked hand in hand with a man. His hand was smooth and firm, and hers felt so secure within his grasp.

“Should I bring anything for dinner tomorrow night?” he asked. “Thank you again for the invitation.”

She smiled at him.

“I’m delighted that you’re coming, but I’m not the person to ask that question. You should ask Julia,” she said.

Was Christmas Eve going to be the last time she saw him? Probably, since he was going to leave Sandringham the next morning to go to his sister’s house for Christmas.

“When do you fly back to America?” he asked.

He was apparently on her same wavelength. But she wasn’t ready to think about leaving yet. This trip had been better than she’d ever imagined, and she still had days to go.