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“It’s an older frame house that needs some work eventually, but it’s all cosmetic. The structure is sound, and it’s insulated well – which is not something I would have ever craved or noticed before, but I guess that is what ‘adulting’ is nowadays,” she chuckled, glancing at him.
“What’s one thing you would put in your house if you could,” he asked, thinking maybe he could get her a ceiling fan, a dishwasher, or something else to help out – and just have a friend to see when he came back to visit.
Instead, she shook her head…and blushed?
Killian was fascinated.
Why would she blush?
“What?” he choked out, chuckling in surprise. “Is it something embarrassing? Something personal? Tell me. Is it a big bed? A sunken tub for two? Maybe you want a mirrored ceiling…” he whispered, lowering his voice – seeing her shocked gaze at his wild suggestions.
“Nooo…” she hissed in hushed voice, looking mortified. “Of course not –wait– they make a sunken bathtub for two people? Who wants to bathe with another person? I mean, they’dseeyou!”
This time it was Killian who was blushing, realizing he’d admitted a few of his own fantasies aloud to a perfect stranger.
“Well? If you could have anything in your home – what would it be? You can tell me. I promise not to judge or laugh… and maybe I can help you? I think you are very nice, and I’m really glad I could help with the car.”
“You can’t help with this,” she said wildly, looking extremely flustered and beside herself in this moment. Her eyes were huge and looking anywhere but at him, like she was really embarrassed they were having this discussion.
“Try me,” he encouraged, smiling.
“I think I’m done eating,” she hedged. “Are you finished? I should probably go. I have to work tomorrow night and…”
“Is it so very terrible to trust someone, Destiny?”
She stopped fidgeting and sighed, before looking up at the ceiling in disbelief, putting her head down in her hands.
“You’re going to get the wrong idea if I tell you what I want in my home…” she muttered so quietly that he barely heard her – but when he did, it was like fireworks went off in his brain as he sat back in wonder, amazement, and shock.
“You want…me?”
“What?” she blurted out, looking at him, just as flabbergasted as he felt. “I told you that you’d get the wrong idea! No, I wanta familyin my home. A real family – not that disaster I grew up with. Laughter, hugs, sitting around the television together watching cartoons, or making cookies and letting the children crack the eggs in the bowl. I want to have –and give– what I never had growing up… and…”
She dragged in a shaky breath and looked away.
“I should go,” she finished, setting down her fork and reaching for a napkin.
“You shouldstay,” he said quietly, his mind clicking wildly as everything she said hit home in a way he never expected or anticipated. “Please stay – and tell me more.”
“I mean,” she whispered, her cheeks flushing nervously. “Who wouldn’t want a home and family, right? Am I so wrong to want that over anything else? The problem is that I can barely afford to take care of me, but you were so nice and…”
He saw her hesitate – and already knew her next words before she uttered them.
“If you wanted a place to put down roots,” she whispered, choking out the words that seemed to fall heavily between them. “I could eventually pay you back… and I wouldn’t expect anything from you.”
“Destiny?”
“I know it’s crazy, isn’t it? I mean, we barely know each other – but if you want your freedom and I wanted a family? Well, we could get married… andyou know… dothat. Then I wouldn’t bother you again, but you’d have a place to go on vacation.”
“You want to marry…me?”
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” she laughed nervously. “I mean, some broke, desperate girl wanting a baby and a friend. It would need to be a fake marriage other than those one or two times that it took to… well…”
“Make a baby?” he whispered, reeling.
“You’re so nice and this is such a mess – and well…” she hesitated again. “I can’t believe we are even talking about this. It’s insanity and I must be exhausted.”
“No, it’s not insanity,” he said quietly, watching her. “Both you and a child would be covered under my insurance – and I could come home for four weeks a year, to stay with you.”
