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“I think we should live here. This is your home, the place you love most, and I want to keep working with Jack.”

“When you say we should live here, you mean the way things have been?”

“No, the way I think we both want it to be.”

Hope rose up so swift, her throat ached. Her eyes filled with unshed tears and she prayed he meant what she thought he said, but she didn’t say. She’d spent too many days and weeks hoping for this.

“What are you saying exactly?”

“I talked to Jack and Sam today. Well, yesterday at this point. I told them I have feelings for you. Deep feelings, and I want to be with you.”

“You do?”

“More than anything, but you already know that.”

“And my meddling brothers gave you their blessing?”

“Sam already knew how we felt about each other.”

“He’s an FBI agent. Nothing much gets past him.”

“Jack didn’t take it as well at first.”

“But he’s your friend and knows you aren’t messing around.”

“I’m not messing around,” he confirmed, giving her one of those deep, penetrating stares that said so much when they’d been unable to speak to each other about how they really felt. He didn’t want a casual affair, dating just to have fun with no strings attached.

“This is serious.”

“Yes,” he confirmed.

Her stomach did a flip-­flop. She held back the joyful squeal. He looked far too serious for her to go all girly on him.

“How serious?”

“We’ve wasted so much time already, and while I want to do this right, I don’t want to draw this out for months.”

So the man took all this time to finally come around and now he was in a hurry to bind her to him.

“We’re on the same page.” She hid another secret smile. Oh, he might think he had this all planned out, but she had plans for him, too.

It hurt her to see him dig the heels of his hands into his tired eyes and exhale so deeply she felt his relief.

She went to him, stood between his knees, and combed her fingers through his short brown hair. “It’s okay, I’m not mad it took you forever to tell me you want to be with me.”

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her middle and rested his forehead to her belly. “You should be.”

“The point is, now we can be together and you have a clear conscience.”

“I wish I did.”

“I thought you said Jack is okay with our seeing each other.”

“He is. It’s not about him, but other stuff.”

“The stuff that keeps you from sleeping.”

He fell back against the couch and stared up at her, so much turmoil in his sad eyes. “The things I’ve seen, and even worse, done, haunt me. Maybe after everything I’ve been through, I’m not the right man for you, or anybody.”