Page 40 of Ripple Effect

This is all I needis my last coherent thought, before Cal drives us to a place where only the two of us exist.

* * *

“Doyou think the coffee is still good?” I murmur much later as I’m curled against Cal’s perfect body.

He bursts out laughing. I snuggle deeper. “Forget I asked. I don’t need anything but the sound of your laugh to start my day perfectly.”

Combing his fingers through my hair, he asks, “Why’s that?”

Reluctantly lifting my head, I adjust myself so my eyes meet his. “Because it makes my heart brighter,” I say simply.

His smile turns tender. “Saying things like that isn’t going to get you coffee. It’s going to make you exhausted.”

I adjust myself so I’m curled against his chest. “I don’t care.”

“Nor will it give you the opportunity to call your parents to tell them about the wedding.”

I make a dismissive sound. “When I decide to emerge from my cocoon of bliss, they’ll still be there.”

His body’s shaking against me. “A cocoon of bliss?”

“Happy wife, happy life, buddy. Better get used to it.”

A light tap lands on my rear for that bit of sass. “Hmm, if that’s the case, then I need to figure out when I’m going to move in.” He drops that bomb so matter-of-factly, I start coughing as I choke on my own breath.

“What?” I manage to wheeze out. I’ve never lived with anyone but Iris or my family. Even when I was engaged to Kyle, as brief as that was, we never lived together.

Rolling over so he’s lightly pinning me, Cal’s smile fades. “This—you and me—we’re forever, Libby. Through the laughter, the pain, the good and bad.” How is it my heart can pound so hard when it’s dissolving in my chest.

Eyes burning, I nod, because I want this too. I just didn’t realize how much.

“We don’t have to wait to start to have our future, Libby.”

Gripping his biceps, I give in. Kind of. “Honey, I have no problem with you moving in, but it’s going to be a problem with you running back to your place each day to change for work. There is no, and I mean no room for your clothes. So, instead of you moving here, why don’t we figure out where we want to buy a home together? Maybe a place where maybe your clothes can take up residence? And—” My demeanor changes from teasing even as Cal tries control his uproarious laughter. “—we can get a few extra bedrooms for extending our family later.”

His face closes up. “Children?”

“Well, yes.” Why this comes as a surprise to him, I don’t know. “Cal, you’ve met my family. It shouldn’t come as a surprise I’d want children.” I bite my lip.

“With how I grew up, I hadn’t given them much thought. Until I met your family, I didn’t see the beauty in children, I saw the burden,” he admits.

“Surely your foster parents…”

He shakes his head. “They were just there, Libby. They didn’t hurt me, but love?” His voice holds a note of disbelief. “I knew brotherhood from my time in the military, and I recognized familial love from you and Sam.”

“But parental love?”

“Never. Not until I came to Akin Hill and sat on the fringes of a woman’s funeral and realized the stories being told about her—from the pastor down to her great-grandchildren—were spoken with despair and tragedy in their voices and smiles and tears on their faces.” He brushes my hair back from my face. “It was your nonna who made me realize what I had growing up wasn’t normal.”

“What we had wasn’t standard either, Cal,” I feel compelled to point out.

“The estate, no. The love? Adults and children demonstrating not only respect out of duty but out of uncontrollable emotion? You’d have had that because of the people you are.” He rubs his thumb over the apple of my cheek. “I finally had a name for the emotions you made me feel,” he whispers. “I didn’t know what it was before because no one ever said it to me. But all day, I saw it. I felt it, and it wasn’t about me. It was a woman I’m damn sorry I’ll never get to know.”

Me too, but I don’t say it aloud. As I rub my hand up and down his arm, I catch sight of the diamond gleaming on my finger. It holds nothing on the facets of this incredible man.

“What is it about children that concerns you?”

“That I could pass on to them whatever I came from,” he says bluntly.