“Because you love me.”
She said nothing to that, so he knew he needed more. All.
“I knew from the moment I danced with you at your eighteenth birthday ball that you would be a trouble to me. You were so vibrant and funny—even though I knew behind the scenes you were treated deplorably. I kept you at a distance from then on because there could never be surface. I felt that, even then.”
She sniffed. “Well, I thought you were pompous and too skinny.”
He grinned at her in spite of himself. “No, you didn’t. You had a crush on me.”
Her mouth twitched a little, though she did not smile. “Perhaps I thought you handsome, in spite of the pompous and the skinny. But I didn’t hold a torch.”
“No, you had the impressive Jordi.”
She laughed, and he felt all those last worries melt away. Yes, he would do anything to protect her, protectthis, the family they were creating, the love that existed between them. But that did not have to mean…
He was not a young man with too many emotions and not enough sense. He had grown into his sense, his control. He had learned, in part thanks to Alexandre, and in part thanks to life.
He could trust himself. Hehadto trust himself if he was to be a father.
And a good husband to the woman he loved.
“I love you, Evelyne. And I have been afraid to feel anything so deep as love, but it is undeniable, and I… I am not a boy. Perhaps you are right that I stopped maturing in that moment, but I would argue Ididmature and learn and grow. I was just stuck thinking too little of myself because I was so ashamed of what I was capable of.”
“And now you’re not?”
“I am still ashamed, but I can accept that I have grown and learned. I can accept I am not the boy I was, even if some of his impulses live inside me. More, I want to accept those things, so that I can truly be your husband, and a father to our child. A good one, like mine was. Like you’ve always trusted me to be.”
Evelyne had not prepared for this. She had a few fantasies—mostly where he begged on his hands and knees to come back and she sent him away, crushed and crying.
Then there were the ones where he swept in and demanded to be back in her life. They fought and argued like they had in Maine and ended up in her bed like then too.
She’d gotten some mileage out of both fantasies, but this was real life. And so this was more.
This was rational and adult and real. The things he’d learned or realized. The work he was willing to put in to…make thislovework.
Love. He’d…said he loved her. Looked her right in the eye while he did. Like he was doing now, crouched next to her sitting on the floor. It could not be a comfortable position.
“What do you want, Evelyne?” he asked. “If it is for me to go away, I’m afraid I cannot abide it. But if it is all the things you said you wanted before, then I am here and ready to work for those things. Love and a life. I will work as hard as I can to earn this love you’ve given me. I will dive under every surface, fight any fear. For you.” He put one hand over her stomach. “For him. And whoever else may come along.”
Whoever else. Whatever tears she’d managed to fight back spilled forward again at the idea of more children. A real life. A real marriage. A realfuture.
“I love you, Gabriel. All I’ve ever wanted was for you to see yourself as I saw you. And admit you loved me back.”
“I will still worry that I will…fall back into the boy who took things too far. That this love I have for you, for our son, is too much. Too big.”
“Love is never too much,” she told him, trying not to tremble apart. Trying to be strong, because they both needed it. Theyallneeded it. “But should it be, you could trust me to pull you back.”
“I could.” He framed her face in his hands, held her gaze so directly and resolutely. “I do.”
She was tired of crying, but shedidhave hormones to blame on some of it. “Don’t leave again,” she managed to croak.
“No. No, I won’t.” Then he was kissing her—the tears on her cheeks, her jaw. Her mouth. “I love you, Evelyne. You are mine and I am yours. Forever.”
“Forever,” she agreed.
EPILOGUE
Their son wasborn on a stormy night in the palace. Evelyne said it reminded her of Maine, and that she pictured that balcony looking out over the ocean when the pain was too much.
