“Well, I don’t want you to stick with us out of some misguided desire to overcome your past.” Harper got to her feet and walked a few yards away from him. She turned to face him. “I know you struggle with what your father did to your family. I don’tblame you for that. But I don’t want you to stay with me because you’re trying to prove a point. You’re a better man than your father was, no matterwhatyou do now. You didn’t ask for this responsibility. You’re not required to do anything.”
“I understand that. That isn’t what I’m saying.”
“Then whatareyou saying?”
Theo threw up his hands. “I’m saying Iwantto be part of this,” he exclaimed. “I know it sounds like I’m making that up. It doesn’t feel like the kind of thing I would’ve ever imagined myself saying. I almost feel like I’ve become someone else in the past half hour. But I can’t deny the way I feel. When I think of you and my baby, when I think of that picture without me in it… that’s devastating. If that’s what’s going to happen, then I have to be a part of it. If this child is going to be born, then I need to know them. I need to be part of their life. I need to be able to watch them grow up, to know who they are as a person. If you’re having my baby, then I need to be a father.”
Harper tensed. “I want to believe you mean that,” she whispered.
“Idomean it.” Theo got to his feet as well and walked over to her. He thought she might back away, but she didn’t.
He reached out slowly, feeling almost as if she were an animal who might be spooked by his actions, and took her hand.
She still didn’t pull away.
“Harper,” he said, “we’re in this together. If you’ll have me, I want to be in this with you.”
Her eyes were shining with tears. Her whole body trembled. “I just can’t believe I’m hearing you say this,” she said. “Please don’t say it to me if you don’t really mean it.”
“More than anything I’ve ever meant in my life, I mean this,” Theo told her. He was surprised himself by how easy it was to say, but it was the truth.
Harper took his other hand. The two of them stood facing one another. Theo was viscerally reminded of the moment a few hours ago when his brother and Tara had stood together just like this. Facing one another. Facing the future.
He had never wanted to marry. He still didn’t know if that was something he wanted, or if it was something he would be willing to offer. But he did want this future. He wanted Harper. He wanted their child. The rest could be figured out along the way.
“So, we’re doing this?” Harper whispered. “You’re really in?”
“I’m all the way in,” Theo said. “We’re going to be a family. Whatever else we may be, whatever you and I are to one another, we are at least going to be that. And I’ll commit to that for as long as we live.”
She breathed in sharply.
They hadn’t promised one another anything romantic, and yet this moment required something more. And besides, they had been distant from each other for far too long. Standing here, face-to-face with her, all Theo wanted was to bridge that distance. He couldn’t resist.
He pulled her close so that her body was flush against his and wrapped his arms around her. The scent of her overwhelmed him. It took him back to the night they had spent together. It was hard to believe so much time had gone by. It felt like they were still there, on that magical night that had changed everything.
“What do we do now?” Harper asked him. Her voice was soft and breathless. She didn’t sound like herself at all. She sounded undone.
“Now I’m going to kiss you,” Theo murmured.
He forced himself to wait three seconds. They were the longest three seconds of his life. But he needed to give her a chance to break away from him, to step back and say no if that wasn’t what she wanted. He needed to feel that she was as eager to move forward with this as he was.
Harper didn’t pull away.
So, Theo bent down and found her lips with his. They were every bit as soft as he remembered, warm and yielding. He let himself sink into the kiss as if he were falling into a nest of blankets. He held her tightly, crushing her body against him, reveling in the warmth of her. And she kissed him back with just as much enthusiasm.
If this was what the future was going to look like, Theo thought, then the future was looking very bright indeed.
They separated after some time. Theo couldn’t have said how much time had actually gone by. He had lost track of it in the pleasure of the kiss. But now Harper looked up at him, and the tears were gone from her eyes, replaced by a sweet, contented smile. She let go of one of his hands, but kept hold of the other, as if needing to make sure that he stayed near her.
She had nothing to worry about on that front. Theo had no intention of going anywhere.
“I’d love to stay out here with you,” Harper said. “I’d like to stay out here forever.”
“Let’s do that.” He smiled to show that he was kidding.
“We’ve got to get back to the reception,” Harper laughed. “People are going to be missing us. And now more than ever, I really want to dance with you tonight.”
EPILOGUE
