Page 194 of When Love Takes Root

“You just said that so calmly.”

“Because I am right calmly.”

She wiped her face. “I deserved that.”

“You deserved the truth. Not cruelty. Not payback. Truth.” I let the words settle before I reached for her hand. “What are you asking me, Celeste?”

Her fingers slid into mine, warm and trembling. “I’m asking you to give us another chance. Not the version where I run and expect you to chase me forever. Not the version where I use my grief as a shield against your feelings. I want to try for real.”

My thumb moved over her knuckles.

“Trying for real means I don’t shrink,” I said. “I won’t rush your kids. I won’t compete with Jamal. I won’t step into spaces I haven’t been invited into, and I’ll move with prayer instead of ego. But I’m not becoming a watered-down version of myself so fear can be comfortable.”

“I don’t want you watered down.”

“Good.”

“I want you, Josiah.” Her voice shook, but her eyes stayed on mine. “The man who prays before he moves. The man who listens to my children. The man who looks at me like I’m not too much, too wounded, or too complicated. The man who told me he wasn’t asking for Jamal’s chair. I want you, and I’m sorry I made you question that.”

Something inside me settled.

Not empty.

Still.

Peace moved through the room without asking permission.

I pulled her close, and she came immediately. Her forehead rested against my chest, and the sound that left her cracked open the last of my restraint. I wrapped my arms around her with enough strength to reassure her without giving her anywhere to hide.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

That entered me low and stayed.

I pressed my mouth to her hair. “I missed you too, Red.”

She lifted her face. “You still calling me that?”

“When I’m behaving.”

Her laugh trembled. “And when you’re not?”

My thumb moved beneath her eye, catching what fear had left behind. “When I’m not, you’ll know.”

Her breath changed.

Mine followed.

For a moment, we stood in my kitchen with smothered chicken cooling on the counter, peach cobbler waiting like a witness, and every boundary I’d set standing firm enough to hold what came next.

She looked at my mouth.

I looked at hers.

“Celeste.”

“Yes?”

“If I kiss you right now, I’m kissing you like I’ve been missing my woman and praying I’d get another chance to do it right.”