Was she asking him to fix things between them? To unlie to her?
“The point of erring is to learn,” he told her. “If you learn from your mistake, then you’ve made it right.” The reason he marked papers, rather than just slapping grades on them, was so that his students could learn from their errors. They were in his classes to learn, not to get everything right. They didn’t need to be there if they got everything right.
He gave the lecture every first day of class. Morgan had heard it many times.
She frowned, and Cal couldn’t take any more. Standing, he held her in front of him, looking straight into the heart of her, hoping she could see the heart in him.
“I learned, Morgan,” he said. “I swear to every power there is that I will never ever lie to you again. Not ever. For any reason.”
“You learned?” She looked confused. “What did you have to learn? You know everything, Cal. Do you have any idea how hard it is to live up to the man you’ve idolized for years?”
“Probably about as hard as it is to live up to the woman who has more heart in one finger than you’ve dared to have in your whole life.”
He thought he just might have a chance at life again when her brow cleared and she smiled a long, slow smile he’d never seen before. “Head and heart,” she said.
“I’m not following.”
“Your father said that the perfect balance in life is a melding of head and heart. You’re head and I’m heart and I guess that means that together we make the perfect pair.”
“My father?”
She nodded, still smiling. Like she knew the secrets of the universe. “Frank came to see me a few days ago.”
“He did.”
“Yeah, he says that you don’t really want to move to Louisiana.”
That was news to him. His father had done nothing but encourage him to make his own choices.
“He says that you love me.”
Cal wanted to take offense, or be angry, or some other suitable male response. Instead, he smiled. “He did, did he?”
“Mmm-hmm, right after he made me tell him that my father had been right that day at the police station when he’d said I was in love with you.”
Wait. He stared. Had she just told him she loved him?
“This is the part where you either kiss me or head for cover,” she said. “Because if you’re waiting for me to end things and let you off the hook, you’re going to be waiting for a really, really long time.”
He might be stupid, but he wasn’t a fool. “Morgan Lowen, will you marry me?”
“I was kind of hoping you’d kiss me first. How can I marry a man I haven’t even kissed?”
He pulled her up against him, letting her feel how hard he was. “Is that a yes?” he asked.
She moved against him. “I guess it has to be, huh?”
“Probably. Unless you’re going to spend your whole life fantasizing instead of living.”
“Nope. I learn from my mistakes.” Her eyes clouded and she grew completely still. “Telling you I’m sorry will never be enough for doubting you, Cal. But I am sorry. I hurt you to the very core by giving credence to what my father was telling me rather than letting you explain your side of the story.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, love. You did absolutely the right thing. The thing I’d have had you do. You were protecting your son. I lied and that laid the groundwork for what came after. You didn’t trust me because I’d betrayed your trust with those first lies I told you.”
“You didn’t really lie, Cal. You told the story your father had taught you to tell in order for the two of you to preserve some kind of life after he’d been unfairly persecuted. At the time, I was nothing to yo
u but a stranger, really. You guys were in survival mode.”
“Survival mode or not, I will never lie to you again.”