“Then it’ll be fun.” He grins now. “Trust me.”
“Thanks,” I say.
He narrows his eyes on me. “You should know by now that I’d do just about anything for you.” I look away, my cheeks heating. “Why does that embarrass you?” He questions, noticing the flush in my cheeks.
“I’m not embarrassed,” I say. “I’m … pleased.”
“Pleased?” He smiles and sits back in the chair. “Good to know.”
“I better go,” I say, standing.
He grabs my hand. “Stay.”
“Why?” I ask, my fingers shaking in his grasp.
“I could give you some bullshit answer here, but really it’s simple. You should stay because you want to, and I want you to, too.”
“How do you know I want to stay?” I ask, my voice soft.
“Because you wanted to go.”
“That makes no sense.” I shake my head.
“You decided to leave because you were feeling too comfortable. It was fight or flight. Simple as that. I’m asking you to fight. To stay.”
I sit back down in the chair and my breath shakes because this man … this man is getting to me. I’m imagining more with him. Kisses and romantic dates. Cooking dinners together and giving the kids baths. I’m beginning to imagine a life with him. It’s scary, and the reason I wanted to leave—so he’s completely right when he says I wanted to leave because I wanted to stay.
“This whole thing confuses me,” I confess.
“It does me too.” He shrugs, wrapping his long fingers around the coffee mug. “This isn’t easy for me, either, you know?”
I look at him from beneath my lashes. “I never really thought about that.”
“I know you haven’t, and that’s okay. You have enough on your mind. But when you get freaked out by what you’re feeling just talk to me, I might be feeling it too and it helps to talk.”
I clear my throat. “D-Do you see a future with me in it?”
“Yes,” he answers without hesitation. “Do you see a future with me?”
I blink back the tears. “Yes,” I confess.
“And that frightens you.” I nod. “It does me too,” he sighs. “I think something would be wrong with us if it didn’t scare us.”
I smile a bit at that. “This is normal,” I state.
“Completely normal,” he agrees. “That’s why I keep saying it’s okay to take our time. If it ever gets to be too much for you just tell me and we’ll slow down.”
“The same goes for you too,” I tell him. “You can tell me if it becomes too much.”
He nods. “I know.” He stands from the table and holds out his hand to me. I place mine in his without a second of thought. “I want to show you something.”
He leads me outside and around the side of the house to a shed. He lets go of my hand and twists the round knob on the combination. It comes undone and he swings the doors open.
I eye him. “You’re not taking me in here to chop me into a million pieces are you?”
He laughs. “No. This is my workshop.”
He flicks on a light and the sh