“Tell me.”
“For now, I want to call you my girlfriend. And whenyou’re ready, I want my ring on your finger and my last name attached to your first. I want the happily ever that comes after, and everything that happens in between.”
Callie pulls back, gazing at me earnestly. Every heartbeat without a response fills me with dread. She’s slipping right through my fingers, and I’m helpless.
She opens her mouth to speak but hesitates, biting down on the inside of her cheek.
I swipe my knuckles along her jaw. “Talk to me.”
“I’m scared. I don’t know how to do any of this.” She presses one palm flat against my chest. “I’ve never had a partner. I’ve never loved anyone. Never…”
Each second that passes feels like an eternity.
My thoughts stray to a million possibilities, each one more heartbreaking than the last. After a quiet exhalation, she says four words that simultaneously shatter my heart and fortify my resolve.
“I’ve never been loved.”
Her quiet confession floors me, not simply because I’ve never met anyone more worthy of love than this woman in my arms, but because of the sincerity in her eyes when she says it. She truly believes that nobody has ever loved her, and perhaps that nobody ever will.
I close my eyes and suck in a lungful of air. “In just three months, you’ve given me everything I’ve denied myself for more than a decade, and you did it all without even trying. You don’t have to know how to be mine because you already are.”
Her fingers twist in the hair at my nape. “Ok.”
“Yeah?”
A smile spreads across her face, and she nods.
I take her lips in a passionate kiss, dipping her backward.
She shoves hard against my chest and motions somewhere behind me. “Not in front of the kids.”
I follow the gesture and see Emmy and Gracie far too preoccupied to give a shit what we’re doing. Atticus is flopped over Emmy’s lap while Gracie places a tiara on his head.
“I almost forgot they were here.”
She swats playfully at my chest. “Some babysitter you are.”
I kiss her temple. “They’re fine. Atticus is babysitting.”
She cranes her neck to peer around me. “Aww. I think he’s in love.”
My smile falters, something foreign stirring in my chest, like some hidden piece coming back to life after being buried for a long time. Light catches in her mood ring eyes, and I can’t help but hope this exact shade of blue means she’s happy.
My knuckles trace the delicate slope of her jaw. “Yeah, I think I might be.”
Chapter 26
Things you shouldn’t do in a library
? Get Away With It - Lacy Cavalier
Callie
“Excuse me,Miss. Could you help me find something?” Jaxon’s gruff voice sets off a flutter low in my belly. His warmth surrounds me as his body presses into me from behind.
My hand is still wrapped around a well-worn hardback halfway to the shelf. “H-how can I help you?”
He tugs on the neckline of my sweater and presses his lips against my shoulder. “I’m looking for my girlfriend. She’s about your height. Dark hair. The most stunning eyes you’ve ever seen, and a body made for sin.”
