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“I’m going with ‘breathing room.’” He finally dropped his keys in his jacket pocket. “I know all of this was a lot. The pressure from my dad. The poison. Your work situation. Worrying about hurting Mags and Celia.”

“What does any of that have to do with loving me?”

He rubbed his forehead and shifted around. The poor guy looked like he felt uncomfortable in his skin.

Fine. I’d keep going. “You could have answered any of the million texts and calls—”

“Seven. And I did message you about my schedule.”

It was cute he kept count. “Terse one-liners. If you would have given me a real response instead of avoiding me, we could have resolved this and spent the last two days kissing... and other stuff.”

His arm dropped to his side. “What?”

For a smart guy he was having trouble with simple words. “Let’s try this. I’ve loved you forever. When I was a kid it was, yeah, not possible, and weird and all that. But that teen crush gave way to love. Full-fledged, compare-every-date-to-you, excited-when-I-see-you, hate-when-I-don’t love.”

His mouth dropped open.“What?”

I broke him. Not sure how but I did.

Time for a big gesture. I slid in closer. Slipped my hands up his stomach to his chest. “I love you. If you had stayed in this room two days ago instead of bolting, you would already know that.”

He didn’t say a word.

“What did you think the kissing and the sex were about?”

He shrugged. “I thought you were bored or curious.”

“That’s not cool.” I stepped back but he caught me and dragged my hands to his neck. Wrapped my arms around him and pulled me tight against his chest.

“Sounds like I was wrong.” He smiled. “You love me.”

“Up until two minutes ago.” When he hugged me I gave in. “Fine. Yes.”

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“You understand what this means, right?” He should but I jumped on the point just in case. “You said you love me, so now you’re in this. Us. A couple. Dating. Sleepovers at your condo, not here becausegah.”

His arms tightened around me, but he didn’t move.

I tried again. “What, too fast?”

“I’ve loved you for years, so no.” His cute smile made another appearance. “Just surprised. You’ve called me boring in the past.”

Yeah, that did happen. More than once. “I reevaluated.”

“You...”

“I was wrong.” If he needed to hear the words then fine. “You’re smart and caring. Charming and decent. Adorable as hell.”

That smile of his grew even bigger. “I really like that last part.’’

“Me too.” If his hands kept traveling over my back like that, all soothing and sexy, we were going to do a different kind of cooking in this kitchen. “I know it’s scary because our lives are so tied together. The idea of a breakup—”

“Not happening. I intend to make this work.”

Well, listen to him. Right answer. “Okay, but you know how this will go. I’m going to be bossy about you taking time off and coming home so we can have dinner and all that.”

“Done.” He grimaced. “What about my dad?”