Paris had been a wonderful evening, but even now, he couldn't avoid the fact that he'd heard her say three words. Being loved was one thing, but to have his accidental wife tell him that she loved him right there in the middle of a romantic getaway... It was just not something he really knew how to handle.
They'd said nothing the next morning, and all week he'd finally taken the opportunity to catch up. He was at the pub, chasing down paperwork, paying bills and doing stocktake. An order for a broom had come in, and he had managed to get a good head start on the order.
He wasn't necessarily avoiding her, but it was easier to just... well, avoid her, than to talk about it. She knew that he'd heard her, and that he'd understood. Perhaps if he just ignored her for a bit, then she might change her mind, or take them back, or whatever it was people did in those situations.
He had no idea, because it just wasn't his thing. Of course, it was expected that women loved him. But not love like that, and not from the woman he accidentally married and had an emotional bond with. He had been sensing all afternoon that she was a little... frustrated, and he figured that he needed to eventually show his face in his own home.
He'd made it as far as the study before she caught up with him. He knew she was standing there even as he looked over the balance sheets of the pub, and he took a moment to look up at her. She looked... well, not angry.
"I'm not avoiding you," he said in a quiet voice, sitting back in his chair. "And I was going to talk to Liam and see what he thinks about adoption before we make a decision on that." Ok, so he was deliberately misleading her, but it had been something else on his mind since their dinner.