Page 120 of Rebellious Hearts

“Yeah,” I said. “They do… you showed me that. You showed me a lot of things, Sofia. You taught me to open my eyes and look at the world around me.” I reached for her and took her hand, and she didn’t pull away from me. “You turned my attention away from myself. And I love you for it.”

Sofia’s eyes widened, and her lips parted in shock when I said it.

It had slipped out, but fucked if I was going to take that back because I meant it.

“That’s why I’m here,” I powered on, the speech I’d sort of tried to piece together in the car already backward, now. “I needed you to know that I love you. I’m not justin lovewith you. I fell for you so damn hard, and I’m here, heart and soul, ready to do all of it with you.”

“Ben…”

“If you’ll have me, of course, if you want to do this together,” I added quickly. I didn’t want her to feel pressure. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to accept me just because she was carrying my baby. “If you decide you still want to do it alone I will be heartbroken but I will respect your choice and be there for the baby. I’ll be involved as much or as little as you want me—”

She put her free hand on my cheek to get me to stop talking.

“Do you really want to be a part of all this?”

“I do.” I let out a breath. “I want to be there every step of the way, for every bit of life with you. I mean it when I say I love you.”

Her eyes welled with tears, and she squeezed them shut, sniveling.

“These stupid hormones,” she whispered. “They make me cry about everything these days.” She opened her eyes, and they were bright. “I love you, too.”

I blinked at her. Those words had been the words I hadn’t allowed myself to hope for. “You do?”

She giggled. “Yeah. Ben, I love you. I’ve loved you for a while now. I shouldn’t have, but I fell for you. For your grumpy moments, your gruff way of dealing with things… and I love the parts that you don’t show the rest of the world. Your gentle heart. Your love for artisan coffee. The way you notice the little things, even if you don’t want the rest of the world to know you do. I love all of it.”

I felt silly about the things I hadn’t realized she’d seen. And then I realized that that was exactly the point. I’d shown those things to her. I never showed any of it to anyone, but Sofia was different.

“This is going to be scary,” Sofia said, biting her lower lip. “The baby, the pregnancy… I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I have no idea what to expect. I didn’t want any of this, but I know I want it with you.”

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” I said. “We’ll take it day by day. We don’t have to jump into anything we’re not ready for. Right now, I just want to be with you, make sure you’re okay, and the rest we’ll face when we’re ready.”

Sofia nodded and squeezed her eyes closed again, probably to hide more tears.

I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger.

“Hey,” I said softly. “You don’t have to hide anything from me. Not your fears, not your tears. I’m here for all of it. Okay?”

“Okay,” Sofia whispered.

“I love you,” I said again.

“I love you, too.”

God, I would never, ever get tired of hearing that.

I closed the distance between us, wrapped my arms around her, and kissed her.

38

SOFIA

I’d always believed in fairy tales, in happy endings and dreams come true. I’d always loved princesses being whisked away by their princes, damsels in high towers and knights who risk it all to defeat the dragon and save them.

As I’d grown up, I’d learned that those things only existed in stories, but I’d looked for small signs in reality.

The perfect sunset. The way the leaves changed color in the fall. A love story that happened between two people who deserved to be happy.

After I’d been burned by a man who’d decided I wasn’t enough, I’d thrown myself into my career, telling myself that I could make fairy tales happen for other people, but I wasn’t ever going to live one myself.