"Just about," he agrees, looking up from his task and smiling at her, his eyes crinkling in a face that's rapidly gaining more and more color the more time he spends outside. "Keep singing," he adds as he sweeps under her feet and pushes the dirt and dust off the edge of the porch like the rest of it. "I like hearing you."

He didn't know any of Kate's songs when he first arrived, but they've grown familiar to him over time, and he finds it easy to work to the rhythm of her voice lilting away quietly in the background.

The carpets get shook out and given a cursory beating before he takes them back inside, and when he returns after that is all said and done, he doesn't hesitate to head straight towards her to loop his arms over her shoulders and lean down so their faces are more or less at the same level and he can peer over her shoulder at what she's doing. "Making gloves?" he asks, turning his head to kiss her cheek. "You're so clever."