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He wiped the lone tear away with his thumb. ‘Shh, let me finish, Red.’
The lopsided smile and the old nickname touched that tender place in her heart that still ached for him and always would.
‘What I was going to say was, as much as I loved that girl, I love the woman she’s become so much more.’
She pulled back, scared to let herself sink into him again. ‘Don’t say that if it isn’t true.’
‘You think I told you about my mom to make you feel sorry for me?’
She shook her head, because she knew he would never do that—he had far too much bullheaded pride. ‘No, of course not. But...’
He touched his thumb to her lips. ‘I told you because I want you to know why it’s taken me so damn long to figure out the obvious. The truth is I was scared witless, Red. Of needing you too much. The way I’d once needed her. But do you know what was the first thing I felt when you walked into my office and told me we were still married?’
‘Horror?’
He laughed, but there wasn’t much humour in it. ‘Yeah, maybe a little bit. But what I felt the most...’ His lips tipped up in a wary smile. ‘Was longing.’
‘That was just the sex talking.’
His hands sank down to her neck. ‘Yeah, I wanted to believe that. We both did. But we both know that’s a crock.’
She ducked
her head, but he lifted her chin.
‘I love that you’re your own woman now. That you’re still tender and sweet and sexy, but also tough and smart enough to stand up to me, to never let me get away with anything. We’re likely to drive each other nuts some of the time. I’m not always going to be able to come clean about stuff. Because I’m a guy, and that’s the way I work. But I don’t want to sign those papers. I want to give our marriage another chance. A real chance this time.’
‘But I live in London and you live in New York. And we—’
‘Can work anything out if we set our minds to it,’ he finished for her. ‘If we’re willing to try.’
It was a huge ask with a simple answer. Because she’d never stopped loving him either.
‘Except...I can’t have children naturally. But I want very much to be a mother.’
‘Then we’ll check out our options. There’s IVF, adoption—tons of stuff we can look at.’
‘You’d be willing to do all that for me?’ His instant commitment stunned her a little.
‘Not just for you—for me, too. I want to see you be a mother. I always did. I was just too dumb to say so because I was terrified I wouldn’t make the grade as a father.’
She sent him a watery smile, stupidly happy with this new evidence of exactly how equal they were. While she’d been busy nursing her own foolish insecurities she’d managed to miss completely the fact that he had some spectacularly stupid ones, too.
‘Hmm, about that...maybe we should look at the evidence?’ she teased.
‘Do we have to?’ he replied, looking adorably uncomfortable.
‘Well, you’re certainly bossy enough to make a good father.’ Her smile spread when he winced. ‘And protective enough, and tough enough, and playful enough, too.’
She pressed herself against him, reached up to circle her arms round his neck, tug the hair at his nape until his mouth bent to hers.
‘I guess we’ll just have to work on the rest.’
‘Is that a yes?’ He grinned, because he had to be able to see the answer shining in her eyes through her tears. Her happy—no, her ecstatic tears. ‘You’re willing to give this another go?’
‘I am if you are.’
His arms banded round her back to lift her off the floor. ‘Does that mean we get to have lots of make-up sex?’ he asked.
