Page 48 of The Baby Dragon Bakery (The Baby Dragon #2)

T heo had spent the last two days being miserable, but as he played back their last conversation for the fiftieth time, he finally realized something.

When she had said, “You’re unhappy,” she had been thinking that he was unhappy with her —which was entirely not what he had meant! Once he realized that this might have been a misunderstanding, he drove to her house.

He had been calling her for the last two days, but she hadn’t picked up, and he figured she might need space, but screw that. He needed to see her.

Theo knocked on the door, and Beena answered.

“Theo, hello,” she said, surprised. He hoped she didn’t hate him. “Come in,” she said, and Theo entered.

“Is Lavinia here?” he asked, looking around.

“She just left,” Beena said.

“Ah fuck,” Theo said, then winced. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Beena said, taking his arm with her free hand. “Come on, let’s have a little chat.”

She brought him to the family room, where Biter was asleep in a nest of blankets. Theo sat down next to Beena on the couch.

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” she asked, eyes warm and patient. Theo gave her a rundown on the disastrous dinner at his parents’ place, what they had said, how it had gotten into his head and made him be distant toward Lavinia.

“I know I don’t deserve your daughter,” Theo said, hanging his head.

“Hey.” Beena lifted his chin so he would meet her eyes. “When people tell you that they love you, you have to believe them, or you end up in a situation like this. Has Lavinia ever made you feel like you don’t deserve her?”

“No.”

“What about me? And Garrett and Alfie. Have we ever made you feel less than?”

He shook his head, eyes welling up with tears.

“Then you just have to believe that we love you, that you are loved.” She let go of his chin, but he kept her gaze. Her voice softened. “Even if your parents don’t love you the way they should, you are still worthy of love and deserving of it.”

Tears fell down his cheeks and he let out a shuddering breath, nodding. She was right. He couldn’t shoot himself in the foot by letting his insecurities cloud his judgment, especially not if it meant losing Lavinia.

He needed to be brave.

“Understand?” Beena said.

“Yes.” He stood, reaching over and kissing her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” She smiled, touching his face. “Lavinia left about twenty minutes ago, so you might still catch her at your place.”

He nodded, making a run for it. He drove back home, bypassing the elevator and taking the steps two at a time to the fourth floor, heading straight for his apartment, hoping to see her waiting for him by the door.

But she wasn’t there. He deflated, depressed. With a sigh, he let himself into the apartment.

And like a dream, she came out of his bedroom.

“Lavinia!” he cried, just as she called his name, and they met in the middle, crashing into each other. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he held her torso tight.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“No, I’m sorry,” he said, pulling back to look into her teary eyes. “When you asked if I was unhappy—I wasn’t unhappy with you! I could never be unhappy with you. You make me happier than I ever even knew was possible.”

She sniffled. “You didn’t get tired of me?”

“Tired of you?” He was astounded. “If I was going to get tired of you, it would have happened when we were eight, Lavinia. Since then you’ve stolen all my favorite flannel shirts, and your hands are always cold, and you make me watch all those rom-coms, but no, I could never get tired of you, or any of those things, or any part of you.

Take all my clothes—everything of mine is yours!

And if your hands are cold, it means I can make it my mission to keep them warm, and I don’t really mind those movies, since they teach me how to love you better. ”

Her lower lip trembled as her eyes welled with tears. “I know I can be stupid and delusional,” Lavinia said, and he frowned.

“Lav, what are you saying? You’re not stupid, or delusional, don’t be mean to yourself, I don’t like it!”

“Okay,” she said. “Maybe I can get too in my head, sometimes.”

“Me, too.”

They both laughed, teary-eyed. He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her in for a searing kiss, opening her mouth against his, both of them snatching the other closer.

She pulled back, catching her breath, and he rested his forehead against hers, his heart hammering against his chest.

He looked into her eyes, brushing away the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. “I know I’m not perfect, but I’m going to try to be better about not letting my insecurities get the better of me,” he told her.

“Theo, you are perfect,” she said, “you’re perfect for me. You’re my favorite person in the whole world. I can’t live without you.”

“I can’t live without you either,” he said.

“I know you believe in fairy tales, and you deserve a prince or a knight in shining armor, and I’ll be that for you because our story is a fairy tale.

We’ve always been written for each other, since the very beginning, first as friends and now as something more.

” He kissed her again. “Lavinia, I love you completely and totally, in every way that a person can love. You’re my best friend and my lover and my partner and my soul mate and my match—you’re the reason I live! ”

“Really?” she asked, eyes wide. She reached for his hands, entwining their fingers as she smiled. He smiled back at her.

“Really. Even when I was uncertain about the future, there was one thing I was always certain of when I thought of what was to come, and that was you,” he said.

She released a long breath, stepping forward to hug him.

All the tension left his body as he held her against him, one hand in her hair and the other on her back as her hands slid up his shoulder blades.

“I’m sorry for being scared and running away,” she said, pulling back to look up at him again.

“You’re everything to me. If I don’t have you, I don’t have anything.

I love you so much. And you’re wrong—I don’t need a prince, or a knight in shining armor, or a lord.

I just need you, my best friend, Theo, exactly as you are, exactly as you’ve always been.

To me, you’re enough. You’re more than enough, and you always have been. ”

Then it was his turn to get teary-eyed, though they were both smiling as well as crying. He pulled her in for another kiss, then scooped her up princess-style.

She giggled against his mouth, and he carried her to his room, gently setting her down on the bed. It had only been two days, but he had missed her keenly.

She looked up at him from under dark lashes, pulling him on top of her, and the feel of her body beneath his was a wondrous relief, like finally he was back where he belonged.

Desire spread through him, and he kissed her harder. She made a desperate sound and opened her mouth against his, her hands tugging at his clothes. They undressed each other until they were both bare.

He slipped his tongue into her mouth as they kissed, his hands moving across her skin, feeling every soft curve and contour, tasting every shudder and gasp. She twined her hands into his hair, wrapping the locks around his fingers, their lips fused as he settled over her.

They moved together, holding on as if they would never let each other go again.