We're walking to meet my family at the Sky Island restaurant on the property when Dom reaches for my hand. I love the gesture, tiny, but still satisfying.
"The pines smell amazing after a rain." I take a deep breath, letting it fill my chest.
"That's what I miss most about living in the desert." Dom does the same, dragging in a breath that is deeper, fuller. "The smell of the creosote after it rains."
"What does the city smell like after a rain?"
Dom shrugs. "Trash. Asphalt."
"That can't be true."
"It is true," Dom insists. "I'm sure people have different opinions, and it probably depends on where you are in the city. A walk through Central Park after a rain smells great. Walking to work after a rain, not so much."
"Sounds...delightful."
The Sky Island on-site restaurant looms ahead, all glass windows, and outdoor seating. Two employees dry off rain-soaked tables and chairs.
Dom stops suddenly.
"Everything alright?" I ask.
"I have an idea," he says, palm connecting with my waist as he pulls me closer. "What if I could make it so that we didn't have to be long distance? We could date like normal people. We could?—"
He cuts off.
"Finish that sentence, Dom."
He shakes his head. "I don't want to scare you off."
"I'm not going anywhere." My head tips sideways and I give him a sassy little look. "I'm already married to you."
"I was going to say that we could fall in love like normal people. A natural progression."
I poke at one of the buttons on Dom's shirt. "You want to fall in love with me?"
He stares down at me, small smile tugging up one corner of his mouth. "I do."
Dom's words make me happy, sublimely so, but dammit if I don't hear that old refrain in the back of my mind.
You make it difficult to love you.
Anger sparks deep in my belly. I do not want to think of my father right now. I do not want this childhood wound to exist in my present life. I push it away, somewhere down in the depths, locking it up, right where I've kept it for so long.
Dom's blue eyes search my face, and it's like he knows the way I hear my father's hurtful words.
"Cecily," Dom says, capturing my face in his strong hands.
"Yes?"
"I'm going to tell you something at the risk of scaring you away, because I think you need to hear it."
I nod, waiting, hanging on this man's every word. The person I was three weeks ago would be disgusted at how eager I am to soak up everything about Dom.
Tenderly, Dom's thumb strokes my cheek. "You are far too easy to love. You are so easy to love that I have to remind myself to slow down. Give us the proper time to coalesce." He smiles crookedly. "The fact that we're already married notwithstanding."
A searing ache hits my chest. Dom wants to fall in love with me, and in fewer words, he said he's already falling. Do I feel the same?
Yes. Yes a thousand times.
