Page 54

I always assumed I knew what love was.
I didn’t.
This. Here. Him. He’s larger than life. He loves like he lives—with everything inside him.
I watch his face as he comes inside me, and a foreign emotion overcomes me. One I never thought I’d feel again. One I hope will become a frequent visitor.
Happiness.
~ ~ ~
He laces his fingers through mine, both of us spent and satiated after hours and hours of sex. “I have a question,” he says lazily.
“Shoot.”
“If you only found out you were pregnant two weeks ago, why did you pull away from me after Antigua?”
I turn and face him, tucking a hand under my pillow. “So we’re moving on to the serious conversations?”
“As if what we’ve been doing all day isn’t serious, Allie?” He tugs me closer. “Come on, no more secrets between us, okay?”
I nod. “Okay.” I try to collect my thoughts and put them into words. “I guess my feelings got too big.”
He traces my jawline with his finger. “You mean you realized you were in love and you didn’t want to be. But why?”
“You’re a great dad.”
He narrows his eyes. “You didn’t want to love me because I’m a great dad?”
I shrug. “Great dads usually want more kids. I knew how long you and Stella tried for a baby. And since I’m only twenty-eight, it would make sense that you’d want one with me.”
He blows out a frustrated sigh. “I wish you’d just talked to me. If you’d told me about Christopher and your fears. If you’d said you loved me but never wanted to have another child, I’d have accepted that. The truth is, I gave up on the idea of having more kids a long time ago. Did the thought cross my mind over the past eighteen months? Sure. But I knew you didn’t want them. Or couldn’t have them. I never knew which. So it wouldn’t have been a deal breaker.”
I lay my head on his chest. “So I’m an idiot.”
He plants a kiss atop my hair. “A beautiful idiot.”
“I guess we got lucky. It’s sort of strange how fate intervened. If I hadn’t accidentally gotten pregnant, we wouldn’t be together.”
“We’d be together.”
I lift my head and look at him. “How do you know?”
“I knew from the moment we met. I can’t even explain it. It’s like I knew wehadto be together. There wasn’t even a choice in the matter.”
“Well, I’m glad one of us has their shit together.”
He laughs. “I would hardly say that.” His head shakes. “If you only knew. Bug is going through a bit of a crisis. Her best friend is moving, and she’s been asking to go to a new school because she won’t have any friends.”
His eyebrows shoot up, and he pulls me on top of him and kisses me. “Sweetheart, this couldn’t have been better timing.” He looks around my apartment. “But with five of us, we’re going to need a bigger place.”
“We?”I bite my lip in nervous anticipation.
“Allie, of course I’m moving here.”
A slow smile creeps up my face. “You’re moving here? And you want to live together?”
“I want to do more than live with you. I want tomarryyou. But I’m not about to ask until I have a ring to slide on your finger. Out of curiosity, though, when I ask, will you say yes?”