She had to smile. “Oh, he definitely loves me. No doubt about that.”
Karl jerked and swung around to face her, a plate with an enormous, uncomfortably lifelike slab of eel cake clutched tight in one large hand. His eyes were wide, his lips parted in shock at her announcement.
“That...” Rob snorted. “That apparently comes as surprise tohim, Molly.”
She lifted a shoulder, unconcerned. “He hasn’t told me yet.”
Rob’s smirk spread. “I’m sure he hasn’t. Let’s find out for certain.” He turned his attention to Karl. “Do you love her? Be honest, man.”
Clearly, her ex-husband considered this agotchamoment of the highest order. The perfect opportunity to soothe his own injured pride by watching hers get savaged.
It wasn’t going to work out the way he imagined. No matter what Karl did or didn’t say.
“Karl’s always honest,” Molly felt obligated to point out. “But he doesn’t have to share anything he doesn’t want to. If you’d rather not respond to this jackass, Karl, feel free to ignore him.”
Karl was nearly hyperventilating. But he stepped closer anyway, plate shaking in his hand, and stopped right next to her ex-husband.
“Dearborn.” His throat bobbed with his audible gulp. “You really want me to tell you for the first time in front ofthisasshole?”
She huffed out an amused breath. “I might as well haveonegood memory associated with him. But again, it’s up to you.”
Karl closed his eyes for a moment, mouth working as he gathered the courage to bare his heart. And despite what she’d just said, her ex-husband might as well have disappeared from the face of the Earth, along with everyone else in the gym.
All she could see was the man she loved, struggling with his fears, and she had no desire to make anything in his life harder than it already was. Even this.
“It’s okay. Really.” She reached across the table to him. “You don’t have to—”
“Love you like oxygen, Molly,” he told her plainly, then met her stare directly. “Like fucking daylight. Good-sized part of me?Loved you for over twenty-two goddamn years now. Even when I thought I’d never fucking see you again.”
Raw honesty vibrated through each choked word, and his eyes were bright as the sun, shining with tears and gut-deep emotion. With naked vulnerability, left unguarded and exposed.
“Oh,” she murmured through numb lips. “I...”
Somehow, even though she’d known, hearing the words... it overwhelmed her. Left her wet-eyed and thick-throated and dazed.
Gathering herself, she shook off the haze of shocked joy. “Oh, god, Karl, I l—”
“Been thinking about logistics.” He barreled right over her attempt at returning his declaration, his face taut with determination. “We do a few renos, your recording studio can fit in my house.”
The way he looked at her—intense, searching, like she was the answer to every question he’d posed over an entire lifetime—stole her breath again.
“But if you’d rather stay in California, fine. Pack up my shit and join you there,” he added, to her shock. “Wouldn’t be able to sell the bakery and move until I got Charlotte and Bez trained up right, but—”
“You don’t need to uproot yourself or leave your business, Karl. I’m willing to sell my house”—she cast a derisive glance at her ex, who appeared frozen in utter bewilderment—“to almost anyone but him.”
The offer, though—the way Karl hadn’t assumed she would be the one to move; his willingness to abandon his lifelong hometown and the business he’d served for decades, if that was what she needed—meant the absolute world to her.
His lips curved slightly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She smiled back at him. “Although... your taking on an apprentice or two would be great, Karl. If I’m going to move across the country to be with you, I want to actually spend some time together.Withoutyou working ridiculous hours or giving up sleep to make that happen. And when was your last vacation?”
He considered the question. “Technically?”
“Technical correctness is the most satisfying correctness of all.”
Somewhere off to the side, her ex-husband groaned and muttered something derogatory. In response, a woman who sounded very much like sweet, gentle Charlotte told him to shut the hell up and stop ruining the moment.
Karl snorted. “Then my last vacation? Not long ago. When I had the flu.”
