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He started to interrupt, eager to explain she needn’t be afraid of him, but she put her hand over his mouth to stop him.
“Aidan, we can’t let our marriage go. We’ve been through a rough patch, but I have to believe we can work this out.”
“Grace, the truth is this. I don’t deserve your kindness and caring. But if you’re willing to work on this, I will do whatever it takes to have you back here in my life.”
He drew in a deep breath to ease the thundering in his chest. “We can do this, but we have to be clear what is going on in our lives where Emma is concerned. If there is one thing I’ve learned in the short time she’s been with me, it’s that she has to feel safe, to know that people love her. And we still have to get through Lisa’s return to Spartanburg and how Emma will cope with that,” he said, pulling Grace’s hand closer to his chest in an attempt to draw her to him.
He smiled at her, holding her close as he remembered how stupidly he’d behaved. “I wish I’d listened to you. If I had, and we’d made a plan for putting our family together, none of this would have happened.”
“We don’t know that. I doubt very much that any child could lose their mother and not have issues that needed to be dealt with.”
He was so thankful for her words. But not nearly as thankful as he felt with her beside him, talking with him, sharing her thoughts. “Are you ready to be a full-time mom? Ready to forgive me for screwing everything up? If we are going to be with each other, we need to figure out how that will work, at least, as much as we can. I realize we won’t get everything right, but if we can find a way to be happy as a family…”
He had to find out what would happen next or die trying. “What do you want to do? I really want you to tell me what you think would work out best for you, for all three of us.”
She didn’t say anything for so long he began to panic. What was she thinking? What would he do if she didn’t feel she could be part of his life?
Steady. Trust yourself. Trust her.
Her eyes met his. He knew by her expression that she’d made a decision. His body felt drained, finished.
“Aidan, I don’t want to rehash the past few weeks and what’s gone on between us. You’re right when you say we need to make a decision, both for us and for Emma. Especially Emma.”
She looked up into his face and it was as if the sky had brightened. “What you did hurt me so much. But what you said is true. It was years ago, and I believe you when you say you didn’t continue to see Deidre. I want to be with you. I want us to be a family.”
He wanted to yell for joy as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her face, her eyes, her lips, while his hands roamed over her back, down her body. Her sudden intake of breath fanned his desire. “I’ve missed you. Every day. Every minute of every day.” He smoothed his hands over her body, feeling all the familiar spaces, her curves, the bony crest of her collarbone. He loved all of it.
“I missed you, too…so much. It’s been awful being without you. It was so strange to come to my house, see things being done differently and realize that if I didn’t work things out with you I would not be coming to this house, our home, ever again.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Can we think of something, some way to spend time together as a family? Away from here? Away from all the reminders of what we nearly did to each other?” Grace asked, letting her fingers play along the open neck of his shirt, her touch making him wish that there was no one in the house but them.
As his eyes met hers, he could be certain of only one thing. If they’d been alone, he would have taken her upstairs and made love to her.
