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Melissa blinked at the tiny, messy bundle in his arms, watched him wrap a clean towel around her. She reached out to stroke her finger over a rosy cheek.
“A girl?”
Glancing up from the baby he stared at in awe, he grinned. “All along.”
“But…”
James placed the baby in her arms. “You made assumptions without having all the facts.”
Melissa stared at the perfect little girl in her arms. Ten fingers. Ten toes. Perfect round face and head with a shock of jet-black hair. Big dark blue eyes like most babies were born with, but Melissa suspected they’d stay blue. Like James’s.
A girl.
“I bought boy clothes.”
Moving back between her legs to clean her and deliver the afterbirth, he grinned, a mischievous twinkle sparkling in his eyes. “I’ve got pink covered.”
A few minutes later, after James had clamped and cut the cord, Melissa touched a tiny hand, and five fingers automatically grasped hers. “You bought pink?”
James motioned to where the baby attempted to cram her free fist into her mouth. “My trunk is a baby girl’s treasure trove. I knew you’d want to have pink to bring her home from the hospital.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you said you didn’t want to know the gender.” He wiped his hands on a towel, then clasped her hand, the one the baby held onto, and the image of their three hands bound together brought tears to her eyes.
“I really do attempt to give you what you want, Melissa.”
“Then give me you.” She averted her gaze to stare at the pink baby, her sweet little lips puckered.
“I told you, you’ve had me all along.”
“Not these past few months. You haven’t held me, touched me, not even when I begged you to.”
“I wanted you to know sex wasn’t what bound us together. That although I want you fiercely, what I feel for you is much more. I wanted you to miss me.”
“I did miss you. Horribly.” She closed her eyes, then met his gaze. “If you only knew how many nights I lay in bed, wishing you were there to hold me, knowing you were just a few doors down and yet so far away.”
“I was never far away, babe.” He lifted her hand to his lips, kissed her palm. “I’ve always been right here, with you.”
Hot tears ran down her cheeks. “I thought I’d lost you.”
“Those same nights, I was lying in the guest room, wishing you’d come to me, that I had the right to go to you. I couldn’t. I wasn’t willing to risk you making me leave if I overstepped the mark. Not when I wanted to be here so badly I could have kicked myself for ever leaving. I love you, Melissa. I have from the moment you first took my breath away at that asthma meeting.”
She couldn’t doubt him. Not with the way he looked at her, with the way his eyes lit with truth.
“You did some breath-stealing of your own at that meeting.”
He laced his fingers with hers.
“I love you, too, James. With all my heart and all my soul and all that I am.” Her mind raced, wanting to tell him everything in her heart. “I’ll move to Nashville, sell my practice, stay home with the baby, work by your side. Whatever it is that’ll make you happy, I’ll do it. I just want you in my life. That’s most important.”
He shook his head and gave a small chuckle. “You’d never be happy in Nashville.”
“I’ll never be happy without you.”
“You don’t have to be without me.”
“You’re OK with commuting, with staying here? My working at the clinic and you driving back and forth?”
