“I wasn’t happy all week long, Lexi,” he said, tracing my cheek with his finger. “I wasn’t happy because I thought we were done. For good.”
His breath lingered on my cheek even as his gaze burned into mine.
Ah. I see. My heart melted.
“I thought so too,” I agreed, glancing over at Evie, who had somehow gotten hold of the can opener. I hurried over to trade it for a whisk from the drawer. She squealed with delight and ran circles around the kitchen, waving it like a victory flag.
Jonah turned to me, his face serious. “I didn’t want to lose you. But I didn’t want to admit to you that I was afraid of losing you.”
The big, intolerable jerk.
His voice dropped. “When you didn’t show up to work and I found out the reason why, I couldn’t tolerate the idea of being away from you anymore. I realized I was so distracted around you and even more distracted when you were gone. What am I supposed to do with myself?” He sounded frustrated.
I met his gaze. “You could try being honest with me,” I said.
He gave me a deep, measured look before he nodded to himself. “So, now that you’re better, there’s something I need to tell you,” he said, and I didn’t know if I should be worried for what he was going to say next.
“In the past year, Jill and I occasionally slept together whenever she visited New York. But I never slept with her or any other woman after our first night together at Aurelius. I didn’t think Jill wanted anything from me either since we’d ended things months ago. But it turns out,” he took a deep breath, “that you were right, and I was wrong.”
I froze.
“Jill wanted us to get back together, to at least have the friends-with-benefits thing going again.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, feeling a mix of emotions. I wished he weren’t telling me this. It was making me uncomfortable as hell.
“Anyway, when I heard that, I told her that we were done as friends. She was welcome to continue to work with us, but she and I wouldn’t be meeting outside of work again, even as friends. I also told her I had someone special in my life. A girlfriend.”
I met his gaze, my heart thudding. “So you’re finally calling it? Whatever this thing is between us?”
He nodded without hesitation. “I am. I don’t want Jill or anyone else in my life. I only want you. I want to date you, officially. I want you to be my girlfriend, Lexi. To be in a relationship with you.”
My heart squeezed tight in my chest. All the uncertainty, all the fear that I’d been carrying dissolved in an instant. “Yes,” I said, the word coming out breathless and sure at the same time. A smile broke across my face before I could stop it. “Yes, I want that too.”
I took a sip of my coffee just as I realized my hands were suddenly trembling. “You’re the one person in my life who I can depend on when I’m in trouble. I bet a lot of women tell you that, huh?”
He gave my free hand a gentle squeeze before saying, “Not enough actually.”
“I’ll tell it to you then,” I said softly. “I’ll tell it to you all the time. When I’m better. And when you aren’t ignoring me at work.”
He drew in a breath. “You’re unlike every woman I’ve dated in the past,” he said, running a hand gently over my hair, looking guilt-stricken. “You didn’t deserve the way I’d treated you. You deservedsomuch better. I’m sorry about that, Lexi.
“For years, I’d looked right past the real substance beneath the glossy surfaces of the women I dated. I kept myself detached,distant, and safe. But with you, it’s different. The raw, unfiltered emotions are the very part that hook me.”
I leaned into his hand, pressing my cheek against his palm. “I’ve never been with a man like you, either. You’re the best I’ve ever had.”
“You too, Lexi,” he muttered. “You are too.”
Just as I processed that, tiny feet walked over to us, and Jonah stepped back from me and turned to Evie.
“Shall we whisk the eggs?” he asked while I picked her up and set her on the stool by the kitchen counter.
“Yes,” Evie said, pulling the bowl over to her and attempting to whisk. “Can you tell me why you always wear a suit?” she added, as she held the whisk aloft and watched the yellow yolk drip back down.
Jonah looked down at his dark gray suit and then back at her. “Because I don’t have too many clothes.”
Bored with whisking already, Evie set it aside and reached for some oven-roasted chicken nuggets on the counter. “Well, the next time, we should take Jonah shopping. Can we do that, Mom?”
I grinned, while Jonah picked up the whisk and completed the job. “We can, though I’m sure he’d be scandalized by our choice of stores.”
