He stood, blew out a long breath, and then began pacing her living room. She watched him, noticing a few things. He was still handsome as sin, that would never change. And he was now thirty-one, since he’d had a birthday in October. She wondered which one of his many women had celebrated it with him. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she couldn’t help admiring his buff body, which meant he was likely sticking to his routine of jogging five miles each morning.
“I couldn’t do it.”
She blinked, realizing that while she’d been ogling him, he had stopped pacing. “You couldn’t do what?”
“None of the things I said I would do. Return to being the old me, going back to my womanizing ways. I would make the call, then hang up the phone before anyone answered. I couldn’t do it.”
She frowned, trying to follow him. “Why not? That night, you told me I was not enough.” At that point, she didn’t care if he heard the pain in her voice. It was the same pain she’d had to deal with for four months.
“I was especially wrong about that. I honestly believed that I could not be serious about any woman because I never wanted to end up married to a woman like my mom.”
Although he had told her about his cousins in Charlotte, he’d never talked about his deceased parents. “What was wrong with your mother?”
“My father believed a woman should not work outside the home. So, Mom took care of the house and everything…but she nagged my father to death. He would ignore her, but I couldn’t. I knew how hard my father worked, so she wouldn’t have to. But he loved her anyway. The only time she didn’t nag him was during Christmas and New Year’s. Those were her favorite times of the year.”
He paused a moment, then added, “He loved her. Dad truly loved her, and I always thought there wasn’t enough love in the world to make me endure the constant abuse that he took.”
“Did you ever ask your father about it?”
“Yes.”
“And what did he say?”
Drew shoved his hands into his pockets. “He said that Mom had lots of other admirable qualities and that he understood her need for emotional release that stemmed from her childhood experiences. He said he would always be there to help her cope with them and to give her the love she had missed getting. And he was there for her until the end.”
He didn’t say anything for a minute, then said, “That seemed like a lot for any man to have to take on. I knew what I wanted and didn’t want in my life, and assumed I had it all together. Until I met you.”
He rubbed a hand across his face. “That time we spent together in the Smoky Mountains was the best, and the seven months after it were, too. But a part of me felt like I was falling into a trap. I knew I could come to care for you, and I didn’t want that to happen. With you, I had become vulnerable. So, I panicked and decided to get you out of my life.”
He came to sit beside her. “It didn’t work out the way I thought it would.”
“No?” she asked, studying his features and noticing the lines of strain around his eyes.
“No. I honestly thought I’d be better off without you. That I wouldn’t miss you when there were so many other women out there. But over these past four months, I’ve discovered I’d only been lying to myself.”
He stood again and began pacing a few times, and then stopped in front of her. “I found out the hard way that you’re all I want. I’m no longer attracted to other women, sexually or otherwise. No one compares to you.”
He looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes before looking back at her. “Hell, I got it so bad for you that I can’t work without thinking of you. Whenever I close my eyes at night, I think of you. I saw an ad for a little girl with green eyes and imagined her as our child -mine and yours. And the strange thing about that is that I’ve never wanted kids. It took me nearly five months, but I finally realized and accepted what had happened to me.”
Eden swallowed deeply, then asked. “And what had happened to you?”
“I’d fallen in love with you, Eden. As much as I thought I could never fall for any woman, I fell in love with you. I fell in love with every single thing about you, and want everything I thought I didn’t want. I have not slept with anyone since meeting you. I haven’t desired another woman. You are the only woman I want in my life. I want kids with you. Girls who look like you and act like you. And I promise that I’ll never try to control them. I will be a good father.”
Eden couldn’t stop the tears that she felt flowing down her cheeks. She loved him, and he had just admitted to loving her. Then, to her surprise, rather more like shock, he lowered to one knee before her as he pulled a small box from his pocket.
He took her hand and asked, “Will you accept all the love I want to give, be by my side, and one day shower our kids with love. I know how much modeling means to you, and I will always support the career that you want. I love you so much. Will you marry me, Eden?”
She swiped tears from her eyes. “I love you, too, Drew. The answer is, yes. I will marry you.”
He slid the ring on her finger, and she gasped upon seeing it. The brilliance of the huge diamond nearly blinded her. “My gosh, Drew! This ring is gorgeous!”
“Just like the woman wearing it,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
He then proceeded to give her the kiss she’d missed getting for the past five months.
**
Later that night, wrapped in each other’s arms, Drew and Eden made plans. He would return to the States next week to finalize his company’s year-end accounts and then return a week before Christmas. They would marry here in Paris on New Year’s Eve. Then a week later, after honeymooning in Scotland and Ireland, she would return to the States for photo shoots in New York.
