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She had intended to tell him what she’d been steeling herself all morning to say, but he shook his head, needing to go on. And she found she wanted to let him.
‘You’ve been my salvation, and my hope.’ He hooked one finger under chin, his eyes holding hers. ‘You’ve made me believe in a future I thought would never be for me. I can’t predict the future in terms of family, Kat. But, then, no one can. I can only promise you that you will always have me, and you will always be the only one for me. I’ll never want anyone but you.’
‘I’ll never want anybody but you either,’ she whispered.
And he couldn’t stop himself any more. He slid his hand to the back of her neck and drew her to him.
‘I don’t care if we have a child biologically, or if we adopt.’ He dropped his forehead to rest against hers. ‘I don’t care if you don’t want any of it. I don’t care if you want ten. As long as we decide together.’
‘You say that now, but...’
Her hand still hung by her sides, and it only made that thing inside claw at him all the more. He had to make her understand.
‘Would you always see another child as more precious to you than Jamie?’
‘What?’ She tried to snatch herself back, but he wouldn’t let her. He kept that contact. Her cool forehead against his. ‘Of course not! That’s a horrible thing to say.’
‘Then why should I feel any differently about any child we might choose? Or, indeed, if we were lucky enough to have them choose us?’
‘It’s...it’s not the same,’ she managed.
But she didn’t look so convinced any more, and he wanted to punch the air in triumph. Kat was beginning to understand. She was his. They were meant to be.
‘I will never let you down, Kat. I promise you that you, and Jamie, and whoever else comes along will be part of our family. Equal in every way.’
‘But—’
‘No.’ He silenced her. ‘I came back to Seattle to try to make a home for Jamie and me. To try to find a way to connect with the son who I thought I knew, but it turned out I didn’t after all. I certainly didn’t know how to communicate with him. But then you appeared, and you taught me how. You made everything happen, but more than that you opened up my heart.’
‘I came here to try to heal after everything that had happened,’ she whispered, her eyes lifting to him even though neither of them had moved their heads.
And, at last, her arms lifted and her small palms rested lightly on his upper arms.
‘And have you? His voice sounded as raw as it felt.
‘So much so that I can barely even remember where the wounds were.’
It was possibly the most beautiful sentiment he’d ever heard.
When he lowered his head and kissed her, Kat forgot where they were, and who was around. She lost herself in the magic of the moment, the magic of Logan. The magic of Christmas.
It might have been an eternity before they resurfaced had Jamie—incredibly patient up until that moment—not decided to reinsert himself.
‘Daddy, you still haven’t given your present.’
‘Right.’ Logan pulled himself away, but to Kat’s intense relief—and the relief of her now shaky legs—he kept his arm tightly around her.
As if he didn’t want to let her go.
‘Time for my gift,’ he muttered, his voice thicker than usual.
She found she rather liked having that effect on him. Logan nodded back towards the dinosaur.
‘Turn it over.’
Dutifully, Kat tugged her gaze back down to the toy, but there was nothing obvious. She reached out to turn it over and found that her hands were inexplicably shaking, as if they sensed something her brain hadn’t yet worked out.
And then she saw it. Nestled over the back foot of the pterodactyl. A white-gold band. Her eyes snapped to Logan then back down, as her fingers fumbled to twist it around.
