Page 96 of Her Christmas Wish

“You thought my scenarios were pretty?”

“Of course I did. Who wouldn’t want the happy family cushioned in love who took on all their struggles and challenges together?”

Her head turned toward him, sharply. “You.”

He deserved that, he guessed. Shook his head. “I wanted it, Sage. I just knew that if I walked into that with you, I’d be setting you up for failure. But that’s no reason for you to quit dreaming your dreams...”

Her sigh hit him deep. Her gaze was turned toward her daughter as Leigh threw out a crooked pitch. Then the little girl ran after the ball, along with Morgan, as it headed toward the water. “Stop!” he called, at the top of his lungs, with no hint of compromise included.

The child stopped immediately. Glanced down. Saw her toes just touching wet sand. As a wave came up and stole her ball.

Morgan dove into the wave, swimming with it, retrieved the ball and swam back.

And Gray turned to see Sage, with tears on her cheeks, looking up at him.

“What?” he asked. He’d yelled too harshly, he knew, but...

“You,” she told him. “I just love you so much.”

He didn’t get it. He screamed at her kid when she was right there. And loving him made her cry. Was she some kind of masochist?

Her gaze turned back to Leigh, who’d moved farther up the beach, toward Scott’s cottage, to play ball. And then she looked at him, eyes open wide and shining with emotion.

“You had a tough childhood in many ways, Gray. And it taught you young to go it alone. In your heart. Losing your mom so young. And then watching your grandmother go, with no way to stop it...”

He stiffened beside her. Hands in his pants. He’d asked her to open up. He had to listen. He didn’t have to like it.

And couldn’t really argue her words, either. Just wished she’d get to the damned point.

“You learned as much about loss as you did about loving,” she said. “The two going hand in hand, so to speak. Kind of like...having your things sold.”

He’d forgotten he’d told her about that. Being happy to get a new toy. Knowing that it would be sold when it had to be. And he needed her to get to the point. Faster. Didn’t much feel like failing so early in their little lifetime project.

“I didn’t quit dreaming my dreams, Gray,” she said softly. “I just opened my eyes to let them become real.”

He frowned. “I don’t get it.” Not a usual thing with her. He didn’t like it. Dug his toes over the sides of his flip-flops to feel the sand.

“I was so busy building our family, playing my part of mother, that I failed to be a fiancée. And a wife. I didn’t think about you, Gray. And your needs. And you, having grown up used to the women in your life being unable to see, or if they saw, attend to your needs, you had to take responsibility for yourself. Feeling as though you didn’t have a place in my dreams, you erased yourself from the picture so there’d be room for the guy who did.”

Okay. Maybe not so flowery or...whatever...but...there was some truth there.

“There is no other guy, Gray. I’ve had ten years to find him, and I’ll admit to trying. Hard. It didn’t work. Because you were the man of my dreams. Just you. And the problem was, I didn’t look to know that you needed me to see you.”

Oh. Okay. Yeah. Wow. He stared at the ocean. And then the dog and child just yards away from them. Still running. Emitting occasional screams and barks.

And his gut settled.

Dogs and children. They were who and what they were.

And accepted what they were given.

As he had.

“So now...that you...as you say, see me?”

“You’re the man of my dreams.”

He turned slowly to look at her. Read the truth in her eyes. Felt no surprise. His heart leaped. Soared. And then slid into land.