He kept taking her hand tonight. It was far more contact than they usually had outside of the special nights, and Opal really liked it. Except he’d take his hand back again. But maybe once he sat down beside her, he’d take her hand again. That would be lovely, she thought, to watch the stars fall while holding his hand.
“I do,” she told him as she arranged her skirts. Not for propriety, because who was out here to see her if she carelessly displayed a bit of leg? But bare skin got chilled, and she wanted to be comfortable. “I have interest. You can talk about it with me, if you want to. I didn’t even know they all had names. But I’ve always loved watching the stars.” Opal blushed slightly and confessed, “When I was a girl, I made up a story about how they were diamonds, and how they got into the sky, and how they were there because even peasant girls should have pretty things and no matter where you were, you could always see your diamonds in the sky, and when they fell, if you were lucky, maybe, you could find a diamond you could hold.”
Which she knew wasn’t at all true, but before she met Henry, it was the most she could possibly look forward to. Now, if she never saw another diamond again, Opal wouldn’t cry a bit. Which reminded her of something he’d said. At the time, she was distracted by something else, but now, thinking about it made Opal wonder. After a moment, she said quietly, “Henry? Did you mean it?”