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“It took my accident for you to realize that?”
He shakes his head. “No. I actually realized it when you showed up to Oliver’s play after you promised you would. I was just too stubborn to admit it. You showed up for us because you love us, and that’s something no one has ever done for my son and me before besides my mom.”
I swallow roughly. “And what about marriage?”
“After watching mine disintegrate, I lost faith in the idea. I swore I’d never go down that path again. But mostly over the past few weeks, I realized that Monica and I shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place.” He blows out a breath. “We were young, I was fresh out of college, and we had only been dating about six months before she wound up pregnant. I wanted to do right by her, to have our family together, unlike how I grew up without my father, so I married her without a thought about the commitment we were entering into. I thought I was doing the right thing, but ultimately, we both were naive about what marriage entailed, and she was the one who made the decision to leave. And part of me is glad that she did.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Even though Oliver doesn’t have his mom in his life, I would go through all the shit with my ex ten times over as long as it meant I get to have you on the other side of it—as long as he gets to have you too—because you have been more of a mother to him than his biological one, and that’s what he deserves. And one day, you’ll be the wife I know I deserve too. And I want to be the husband you deserve in your life, Amelia. I want to build a family with you. The entire path I’ve been on was the one that I had to travel on to get to you.”
“So why are you telling me this now?” I ask as my heart pounds, his words blowing up that balloon of hope in my chest with each passing second.
“Because I’m scared, but I’m ready to work past it.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out one of the pamphlets I left in his office back when we were fighting. But it’s not just any pamphlet; it’s the one I signed for 20 percent off a therapy session with me. “I’d like to schedule an appointment with you. I think I need to process my divorce so I can move on.”
His gesture has me smiling and tears moving down my cheeks. “You’re willing to attend therapy?”
“I am. I’m tired of living in the past. I want a future, and I want it with you. But I’m scared, Amelia.”
“What are you scared of?”
“I’m scared of getting things wrong with you, that you and I’ll end up like my first marriage did. If we ever divorced, it would destroy me.”
“I’m scared too,” I reply honestly. But this time, I offer him some of my wisdom as I see his walls start to crumble. “You see, that’s what you’re overlooking though. The fact that we’re both scared of getting things wrong is what will ensure we get things right, Ethan. That means we’re both invested in fighting for each other every day, through the highs and the lows. That means taking our vows seriously. But I want to be clear about something…”
“What?”
I reach out and cup his jaw. “I never said we had to get married right now. I just wanted to know that it was a possibility, that somewhere down the line, I would get to be Mrs. Ethan Fuller.”
His smile is instant. “Damn, I sure like the sound of that.”
“Me too.”
But then he releases my hand and reaches for the plastic bag on the chair behind him as a wave of relief rolls through me.
This man. He’s breaking down his walls and striving to be a better person for his son, me, and himself. What more could I ask for? And why on earth have I been fighting our connection this entire time instead of reassuring him of it?
Because most men need to come to realizations on their own before they can accept something—and it seems to me that Ethan is coming to terms with what he really wants.
“I bought you something.” He takes three garden gnomes out of the bag and places them on the bed in front of us—a man that looks like him, a woman that looks like me, and a little boy that looks just like Oliver.
“Why do you have those?”
“I bought you new ones. I kind of broke the other ones.”
“You broke my gnomes?”
He winces. “I kind of threw them against the concrete after Nick told me I couldn’t come see you…”
“So you broke my gnomes?” I ask in clarification with a smirk on my lips.
“Look, I’m not proud of it, okay? But fuck, I bought you new ones. Call it a peace offering, a way for us to start over again, but this time all three of us will be together.”
“What are you saying, Ethan?”
“Sunshine and Grumpy belong together,” he says, gesturing to the gnomes. “I realized you’re my second chance, and all I want is the chance to love you forever. I can’t control what happens later down the road, but I can do everything in my power to show you what you mean to me—and to Oliver.”
Tears stream down my face.
“I promise to choose you, show you every day how much you have changed my life, how you made my world feel hopeful again instead of a place where I swore never to love again, even though I didn’t stand a chance the moment I saw you. And the way you love my son?” He shakes his head as a tear of his own falls. “There’s nothing more I could have asked for in the woman that I want to let in, the one I want to take the risk with. I want to build a life with you, a marriage with you that others want, and I want to have more babies with you. You’re the only person I can see myself doing that with. No one else. So, what do you say? Will you let me love you? Will you be a family with me and Oliver?”
I can barely make out Ethan’s face because my eyes are so clouded with moisture. And before I can reply, the door to my room opens.
Noelle pokes her head in through the crack. “If you don’t say yes to that, we can no longer be friends. That speech is romance novel gold, my friend, and you’re hearing it from a real-life man! Kiss him already!”
Ethan and I both break out in laughter as she shuts the door, and he turns back to me. “What do you say, baby? Are you willing to take the risk? To take a chance on me?”
I pull on his arm so he stands and hovers over me since I can’t really move toward him. “You were always worth the risk, Ethan. You and Oliver. I was just waiting for you to realize it.”
He stares down at me, framing my face with his hands. “I love you, Amelia. So fucking much.”
“I love you too. So, yes. Let’s do it.”
Ethan’s entire body relaxes as he leans forward and kisses me. And as our lips touch, so much pain I’ve been carrying around melts away. There’s still an ache in my arm and in my ribs, and the sting of the scratches on my face. But that ache in my heart? It’s instantly gone, and now I know my future is standing right before me—and there’s no other man I’d want to share it with.
Ethan is my person, and finding him feels like finding a treasure, the kind that garden gnomes protect from thieves.
But the only thieves left are the two boys who stole my heart, and now I’ll never let them go.
