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She spread her hands over his chest. “This isn’t all on you, Dex. Expecting you to jump right in and fix things with your mom when I just dropped that news about meeting her? That wasn’t cool. I was setting you up to fail. Because I was terrified, too.”
A slight curve of his lips told her he understood. They were both excellent at this self-sabotage thing.
“I needed to sort stuff out. With the team. My mom. This court case. I wanted to come back to you without all that baggage, but I’m starting to realize that I’ll always have it, something that makes me less than perfect.”
“We all do. It’s how we work through it that matters, and that’s something we should be able to do together. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. Forgive me.”
He shook his head. “Nothing to forgive. I wasn’t ready to listen, even when you said you’d fallen in love with me. I didn’t imagine that, did I?”
She shook her head, fighting the tears that insisted on coming. “No, you didn’t imagine it.”
“Good, because I definitely screwed up there. I panicked, which is ridiculous because I headed into that office to tell you that I loved you.”
Oh God. “And then I blindsided you with the mom-bomb.”
He nodded. “It was a lot. But I took what you said inside of me, let it settle in my heart. Then I talked to some people—Petrov, the guys, Petrov again. That guy has a shit-ton of opinions about women and love. I mean, he could write a book. And Ruby brought me to a cat café.”
“Lula’s? I love that place.”
“Yep, super cute, and I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about it! Willa and I would have a blast there. And did you know she wants to take Mittens home? Well, anyway, we talked, me and my mom, and it was good to just … let it out, I suppose. It opened up a valve or something, and now all I want to do is talk. Mostly I want to talk to you. About the future and whether we have one and Willa and how her art project went?—”
Keeping the smile off her face was an impossible task, so why try? “It went well. She got an A-minus.”
“Minus? Whose head do I need to crack?”
How she loved that protective streak. She loved everything about this man. “She’s fine. She misses you.”
“I miss her. And I’ve missed you.” Someone coughed significantly on the other side of the door.
Dex growled. “I need to go. I didn’t think I’d be playing but the boys are expecting it and?—”
“It’s okay. We can talk tonight on the phone.”
He cupped her face with both hands and ran a thumb over her lips, his focus fierce and hungry.
“Or not?” she whispered while her heart beat an insistent tattoo.
Dex. Dex. Dex.
“I don’t expect that everything’s solved because I showed up in a very dramatic and romantic fashion and swept you off your feet.”
“It helps,” she said with a smile because it might seem like a fanciful gesture, but Dex’s heart and soul was behind it. The sensible part of her, the woman with years of experience, knew this was just the beginning. “And we’re going to figure it out. As a team.”
His eyes shuttered, then opened again, brighter and bluer than ever.
“Before I go,” he said, his voice graveled with emotion, “I just want to spend a moment memorizing this face I love. I’ve known this was it for me since the moment I turned around and saw you in my seats. In my corner. We hadn’t spent much time together, except for a bad date with another guy, an out-of-this-world kiss, and a dinner you didn’t invite me to. But something clicked for me at that game. It was the beginning of the rest of my life.”
She nodded, unable to speak but agreeing all the same. She couldn’t believe how sure she was, how deeply she trusted this man to have a care for her heart and the heart of her daughter.
Someone knocked on the door and she finally managed to find her voice, even though it was more of a croak.
“You’d better go,” she said, though neither of them made a move.
“I’m going to miss you so much. I can’t stand the idea of being apart from you for a minute.” He kissed her, a deep, soulful, forever melding of lips. “I love you, Ash.”
The words were simple, unlike the complicated path they’d taken to get here.
“I love you, too. So much.”
