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It could, of course, be she was merely hallucinating. She blinked, but he was still there when she opened her eyes. In fact, he was coming closer and closer to where she was waiting until he was right in front of her.
The light in his Irish-blue eyes freed the flutter of butterflies in her tummy, and they went ballistic. Tentatively, she put out a hand and touched him. A solid body. A warm, firm body. Aiden’s body. This wasn’t a dream. He was here. With her. Underneath her fingers, his heart tripped.
Smiling, he took her hand. “Hi. Annie said I’d find you here.”
“Hi,” she got out, her voice husky.
He looked around them. “Riley showed me your house on Sunday. It has potential.”
“I think so, too.”
“It’s a big house.”
“It is.”
With her hand still in his, he motioned toward the one side of the house. “Your office would be on that side?”
“That’s what I thought.”
“And this would be an open-plan kitchen, living room, dining room?”
Her heart was hammering away so loudly, surely everyone within a ten-mile radius could hear it. She nodded, her mouth dry, the butterflies going wild.
“Show me upstairs?”
Incapable of speaking, she led him up the stairs to the second story. She had no idea what was going to happen, but she had goose bumps all over her body, and breathing was fast becoming a real problem.
Aiden peeked into the first bedroom. “This could be the main bedroom.”
“That’s what I’m thinking. It needs a bathroom and a closet, though, but if you take the wall down between these two rooms”—she pointed toward the smaller room next to it—“it could be a lovely bedroom with its own bathroom.”
There were two other rooms on the second level and, with her hand still tightly in his, Aiden walked into each room. From the windows of the room, at the end of the small corridor, was a lovely view of Copper Mountain.
“This one could work,” Aiden said.
Her mouth was so dry she had to swallow a few times before she was able to form words. “Work for what?”
Lifting her hand up to his mouth, his eyes searched hers. “I’ll need an office.”
His eyes were telling her something she was too scared to believe. He would have to tell her. “What would you do in an office in my house? Oh, for when you’re here over weekends?”
He kissed her fingers one by one before he pulled her closer. “No, Vivian, for when I live here with you. I’ll write. All the stories I couldn’t write over the last few years. I’ve already spoken to Steward, my boss. He’s happy about me working from here. I’ll need to go to Portland once a month, though. That is, of course… if you’ll have me?”
Joy was racing through her body, making it difficult to speak, but she opened her mouth anyway, amazed she could actually form words. “It depends.”
He raised an eyebrow. “On what?”
“Are you planning on staying a while?”
His smile lit up his whole face. “I’d like to stay forever. If you’ll have me. You see, I want it all. Not just the weekends. I want you to work on my nerves, I want the messy parts, and I don’t want any part of my life to be without you.” He cupped her face. “I love you, Vivian. Body, soul—the works. I don’t know if you feel the same way—”
Her heart was just about bursting. “You want to move in with me?”
*
Her eyes werebright with tears. Everything he’d wanted to know, he saw in them, though—she was happy he was here, she loved him, she wanted him to move into her house.
In that moment, the rest of the world seized to exit. The Sunday morning sounds outside dimmed. All that mattered was the woman in his arms. She was his whole world. He couldn’t believe he’d been given another chance.
