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“I’ll let him tell you.” He stood and crossed the room, opening my front door.
I shot to my feet and watched Jordan walk in.
“You two came together?” I marveled. It was hardly what I would have imagined happening when my dad went to him after everything I accidentally blurted out.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Dad offered, showing himself out.
Seeing Jordan flooded me with so many different emotions. My eyes welled up and I could feel my heart pounding. I wanted to run into his arms and to slap him all at once.
“I’m…I’m sorry about earlier,” he started slowly. “I told him…what I couldn’t bring myself to say to you. Which is that…the only reason I wanted to end things was the fact that we had to hide it from your dad. I just did think there was any way he’d ever let us be together. I didn’t want us to lose Heartstring, and I didn’t want to cause a rift in your family.”
I was so close to caving in, breaking down. I already felt an overwhelming urge to race into his arms and let him kiss all the hurt away.
But he was the cause for all that hurt, and I wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily. Besides, he still had yet to make the declaration my father swore he had to make.
“It’s not easy for either of us to say how we really feel,” I admitted. “But at least I kept going with the flow. Maybe I didn’t tell you how I felt, but I tried to show you. And what did you do? You left me hanging. You just stopped everything. What do you think that did to me!?”
“I messed up,” he nodded. “I know that. But Cat…Your father is giving us his permission to see what this thing between us really is.” His eyes dropped to my stomach. “But honestly, I think I already know what it is. No, I know it. I know that I love you.”
Hearing it straight from his lips was an even harder blow to withstand. My mouth dropped as I tried to find the words to say, but I was at a loss.
“How do you know it?” I ventured to ask.
A smile eased across his lips. “Because the moment your father told me you were having my baby, the whole world seemed to fall into place. Like this was everything that was meant to happen. You, me…this child. I saw this whole movie flash before my eyes…of what our lives would be like. You, me, and the baby. A family. I knew right then that I’ve never wanted anything more in my whole life…Not a single business deal, not even Heartstring, even begins to compare.”
His eyes stared earnestly into mine. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
I stammered for a moment, still unsure if I could bring myself to really say it. I didn’t know if, after everything, I was ready to put words to all of the feelings that had been building up more and more for weeks.
This wasn’t a teenage fantasy anymore. This was real…and standing right in front of me, waiting for me to take the plunge. Everything I ever wanted was so close—hanging right there, just waiting for me to take it.
“I love you too,” I admitted through a gush of air escaping my lungs. Just saying the words felt like lifting a weight from my shoulders, and suddenly I was so light I swore I could have flown off into the sky.
But then the sense of impending doom set in. Now that I had said, there was no taking it back.
Jordan’s face twisted with emotion, and then he marched right up to me and lifted me into his arms. I was still angry and tense to his touch at first, but who was I kidding? It only took mere seconds for me to melt into his touch. I had never been able to resist him.
He kissed me deeply before letting my feet touch the floor again. He looked back to my stomach as his eyes begged me for permission. I nodded, and he laid his hands across my womb where our baby was growing inside.
“I can’t believe it,” he murmured.
“Me either,” I whispered, but my eyes were glued to him.
I would finish dealing with the shock of my pregnancy later. I could only take one thing at a time, and right now…all I cared about was him.
His lips crashed into mine again, drawing out the words which sounded a little less scary each time I said them.
“I love you,” I muttered over and over again in between a string of kisses.
“I love you too,” he answered eagerly.
I stayed there in his embrace, just letting the shock of it all wash over us, until the room started growing dim from sunset.
“Oh no,” he fretted. “It’s getting late. And we still haven’t celebrated the Heartstring deal.”
“I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day,” I laughed.
“Oh, no you don’t. I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and stared longingly into his eyes. “I hope not. I hope you’re never done with me.”
His lips melted against mine, and he lifted me up into the air again. But this time he started walking towards the bedroom. Once we were inside, he kicked the door shut behind us.
It seemed now that everything was out in the open and there were no more secrets or lies weighing us down, Jordan was ready to celebrate in the way I had originally intended. Only this time, it was much more than sex and we weren’t afraid to admit it anymore. We made love through the night and talked about our baby and the life we would have together until our eyes couldn’t stay open anymore.
Maybe this was always a risky investment, but the pay off was proving to be huge and more than worth it.
