“We need to talk more,” she murmured.
“I spent thirty years with Bianca figuring out my strangeness and translating it into human. I’m out of practice in having to say things out loud all the time.”
“It’s been twenty-five years for me.” She sighed. “We’re quite the pair, aren’t we?”
“Maybe that’s why we work.”
“I guess so.”
“I know what I want,” he said quietly. Assuredly. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
“Me too. Both on the thinking and knowing.” She pulled back enough to make sure he could see her face. “I want you around a lot this winter, too.”
“And when the snow gets too cold, you can come to my place in Coronado. You’ve got a daughter to visit, she’s a good excuse.”
She cupped his face with her free hand. “I don’t need an excuse to come and visit you, Frank. And I can stay at Tegan’s house if that’s easier.”
“I said what I said. I want you to come to my place. I want—” He took a deep breath. “I want to split wood here. I want to fix your bookcases and build you new ones. I want to show you my life, my home, and share it with you. I want you to bring life back to Bianca’s books, and not because they were hers, but because they’ve sat still for more than a year and you’ll love them.”
“I know you will always miss her,” Grace said. It was important to say that out loud.
He nodded. “Forever. But when I hold you in my arms, I’m not thinking about herlike that. It’s not a comparison thing. Ever. I love you, Grace. Exactly as you are, exactly where you are, and on your own terms. I want to share my life with you in a way that makes you happy. Visiting back and forth for now, and then one day, when you aren’t looking, I may just move in for good.”
“But California—”
“We’ll keep my house. We’ll want to visit the kids. But you built all of this, and I would never ask you to leave it. Besides, I look really good in flannel.”
“You do.” She laughed and tugged at his collar. “I’ll have to get you more—”
“Did you hear me?”
She had. She was still processing it, so—
“I love you.” This time, he didn’t say anything else around it.
Harder for her to ignore this way. She saw what he was doing. So she nodded.
“I didn’t think I would find love again. But I have, and it’s different with you. This thing between us…it took me by surprise.”
“You said it was an ambush.” She finally found her voice. “At camp. That’s what you said when I said I didn’t know what this was.”
“We were ambushed by love, because neither of us thought it would happen for us again. And then bam, it did.”
“I’m set in my ways,” she murmured.
“I’m not looking to change anything about you. I want you exactly as you are.”
“But with a better book organization system.”
“Not even that. Just more shelves. I love the precarious piles. Let’s just get them up off the table, so I can cook for you.”
“So much pressure,” she grumbled, and he laughed as he squeezed her tight.
