“Watch out,” I warned him. “This little reunion of ours will not go well if you laugh so heartily at the idea of suffering once I’m dead.”
“I wasn’t laughing at that, my love,” he said, eyes back on me. Eyes that were twinkling, might I add. “I was thinking about how much I’d missed you.”
I inhaled. “I only went into work once, to speak with HR, the entire time you were gone. Thankfully, Stacey understood and let me work from home because I was too scared to take Evie out, too scared of what people would say about her and us.”
He stepped close, his hand reaching up to cup my cheek. “It’s okay,” he said. “All I see is a mother protecting her child at all costs. Shutting the world out to keep her safe, and it’s what my mother didn’t do for me. I love you to death for taking care of Evie first.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry, Jonah. I truly am, that you had to quit your job because of me.”
“Well, I’m not,” he said, this thumb grazing my lips. “I’m relieved, actually. Because when I was faced with the idea of losing you or my job, the choice was pretty obvious.”
I drew in a deep breath while his fingers stroked my hair.
“But what about your Dad? He’s not going to be happy about this.”
“Lexi,” he said, looking changed somehow. “You were right. I’m walking away from Dad and Cora for good. I don’t need them anymore. You’re my family, Lexi. You fill in everything that’s been missing for me.”
That made me look up at him. When I did, my traitorous hands went up around his neck as though they knew they belonged there even if my brain didn’t.
“I’m guessing your meeting with you Dad didn’t go over so well?” I asked.
He nodded. “Did you invite him over to the birthday party?”
I nodded, feeling rueful.
“No wonder …” Jonah trailed off, but he gave me a sad smile. “It’s not new.”
“I know,” I said, my voice catching a little. “But I thought maybe … if I reached out, he would show up. That it would mean something to him to be there for you?—”
“It means something tome,” he said, his throat moving as he swallowed. “You even trying.”
“I just didn’t want you to look around a room full of people and still feel like someone was missing.”
He leaned in closer. “I didn’t. Not really.”
“But he’s your dad, Jonah.”
“I know,” he said. “And I’ve spent a long time wanting him to show up, in ways big and small. But now I’m done expecting it. I’ve got you.”
My throat burned. “I just wanted to fix it.”
“You did,” he said, cupping my cheek. “You fix things by being here. By seeing me.”
I leaned into his hand, feeling the warmth of him, the steadiness. His lips moved to my cheek and oh so dangerously close to my mouth.
“I love you,” I said before I could second-guess it. “And I don’t want you to get used to people not showing up for you.”
He smiled, that rare, honest smile that made my heart ache a little, even as my lips demanded to do less talking and more kissing. “And I won’t. Not anymore.”
He pressed me closer to him, trailing kisses on my temple as he spoke. “I know you hate big, flashy things in your life. I know you hate uncertainty and instability. But I want to show you that I love you. More than my job at Altika, more than my miserable family who always tried to pull me down. I’m letting both of those go, Lexi, because I want you more than them. And if there’s anything else in my life you want me to let go, just give me the word. Because I can’t go another day without you, Lexi. I love you.”
His words clearly carried further than intended, because I heard the stunned reactions ripple through the crowd, and quite a few audible gasps.
Everything about this moment felt right. Perhaps it was finally understanding what I’d been missing and how different Jonah was from anyone else. But everything came down to one thing: he was a man I could spend the rest of my life with.
“Now, that’s how you confess your love to someone,” a woman from the crowd muttered. “You’d better take him back, lady, or I’m claiming him,” she called just as I stood on tip-toe.
I looked back at Jonah as the world seemed to stand still. The music, the festival, and the city, all of it faded away, leaving just the two of us in that moment.
