“You will not have a meltdown. At least not so that anyone would see.” I could see her flying off the handle when we were alone, ranting about something her father said, or Grayson did, but she would hold it together for—
And then it hit me. I was already seeing the future for us. Us. Together.
* * *
Jane
He didn’t sayanything more, and I sat very, very still. Like any sudden movement might scare him away. Slowly, carefully, I moved to the middle cushion of the couch, next to him.
“So, besides how I got her to run it, what did you think of the add-on piece?”
He put his beer bottle on the table and turned to me. “Nothing’s really changed, you know.”
“I have. I’ve changed.” He quirked a brow at me. “Well, not really changed, but I realized what’s important.”
“And what’s that?”
Screw slow and careful. I slid onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. “This,” I said in a whisper. Just before I kissed him. Of course he tasted like peppermint. And beer. And…Stick.
He kissed me back, his arms encircling me, pulling me closer. It would never be too close. Never close enough.
“Jane…I…” He was breathing heavily when he broke away.
“I love you,” I said, trying to forestall any explanation about him and me being together being wrong while he was raising a child with someone else.
“I…I love you too,” he said. Confirming my reason for being here.Let the rest of the bullshit go.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, kissing him again, edging myself more fully onto his lap, already feeling him grow hard beneath me. “Who knows? We might break up next month. Next week, knowing the two of us.” He gave a small laugh at that. “But we arenotgoing to break up over this. Not over you stepping up and being a father to your kid.”
“We’re not?” he said, a bit of amusement, and what sounded like hope.
“No. We’re not.” A bit of my bravado left me as I asked the sixty-four-million-dollar question. “Unless things with Shelly have changed…for you?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, are you…together? Or want to be?”
He shook his head. “Nothing has changed with Shelly and me. We have not…reinstituted our…hookups.”
I let out a breath of relief.
“It’s been only you, Jane. Since the start.”
We made out some more. I wanted to get naked, but he seemed in no hurry, and I was totally enjoying the kissing, so I didn’t rush it.
After a while, he pulled away again. “So you’re sure? You’re going to be able to deal with this if Shelly’s baby is mine?” I nodded. “You are something, that’s for sure. Not many girls would do that.”
I thought for a minute, and then I conjured up the words Grayson Spaulding said to me at Betsy’s wedding. “I have found it serves me well to see situations as they truly are, not as I would wish them to be.”
He shook his head and took my face in his hands. “Who are you, Jane Winters?” he said, not for the first time. But unlike the other times, there was love in his voice, not exasperation. Okay, there was a little exasperation too, but mostly love.
“That’s easy, Patrick Dooley.” His eyes widened at my newfound knowledge, but I continued, “I’m your girlfriend.”
Epilogue
Jane
Meet me at the hospital?
