Instead of looking annoyed, he just smiled as he grabbed her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her up against him as he moved them along to the music.
She debated pulling away again, keeping her head about her so she couldn’t be suckered in to staring too deeply into those eyes, but she liked the sense of strength and comfort of his arms.
It was a compromise of sorts, she supposed. At least he wasn’t kissing her.
“Well, for starters, once we arrive in Salt Lake,” Jack said, not hesitating a beat, “I thought we might all go to dinner. Or you can all come to our place for dinner. Aggie makes a mean prime rib.”
“Aggie?” she asked, trying to stifle the pang of irrational jealousy at hearing the name.
“She’s almost like one of the family so I hate to call her anything as provincial as a maid. But she’s basically been with us since Lily was a baby, watching out for her—for both of us, really. Making the occasional dinner, cleaning up after us in between the weekly maid service. That sort of thing. She’s also in her early sixties and happily married for forty plus years,” he added with a grin, as if he’d known exactly what she’d been thinking, darn him.
“See.” She shook her head. “That’s kind of a big thing to not know about someone you’re engaged to—real or not.”
“Not at all. The most important things you need to know about me, you already do.”
“And what’s that?”
“For starters, you know how I’ve already started falling for you. For your kids. You know how much I love my daughter and, although sometimes I struggle, I only want the best for her.”
“You’re a great father,” she agreed, even though it came out as barely a whisper, her throat constricting the moment he mentioned falling for her. And her kids.
“And you’re a great mother and as much as we don’t know about each other, it will be exciting and thrilling to discover everything together.” He spun her around, still smiling. “I suppose you’ll probably meet my father, but you don’t have to worry. I know he’s going to love you. He’s always after me to start dating, give him more Harrisons to add to the lineage of future political leaders.”
His dad? Former mayor and past gubernatorial candidate? It was strange to think that the man she’d seen on lawn signs back in high school was Jack’s dad. Someone she’d be meeting possibly very soon.
“Then maybe you’ll even let me meet your family,” he continued. “Your parents and those siblings of yours.”
“I’d love for you to meet them. If you have the time.”
“I won’t lie. There will be a lot of things that will demand my attention when we get back. And with you starting your own business, there may be nights where we don’t see each other at all. But there will also be as many—if not more—times when we do carve out time for each other. When we’ll be able to shut out the outside world and get back to us. It’s those moments, looking forward to them, that will make it all worth it. I know one thing. I’d rather have you in my life, for whatever time we can find, than not at all.”
He made it sound so easy. So…reasonable. And she hoped and prayed he was right because she was finding that time away from Jack and his daughter was becoming something unbearable.
“Is there any other reason you’re hesitating?” he asked.
Damn right. She was terrified about taking this plunge with this man. A man who was going to be front and center in the public eye for the next year or even longer, if he wins the next election.
She tried to smile. “When I let myself consider the possibility of dating again, I always envisioned it would be to a nice, dependable man with a dependable, steady job. Maybe a divorced accountant that I met at one of the kids’ PTA meetings. A nice, normal man with a normal job. But you? You’re going to be the freaking governor. I don’t know what that’s going to mean.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t either. I don’t know what it’s going to be like picking you up for a date with a security entourage following us or trying to plan a romantic evening in a quiet restaurant without worrying about the attention. Frankly, I’m still a little clueless about how Lily’s and my life will be affected. But we’ll figure it out…together.”
She bit her lip, looking over his shoulder as she considered this. All of this. Wanting to leap, wanting to say yes.
He stopped dancing, instead moving his hand to her face where he tilted her head so she was looking into his eyes again. “I only know I want you to be a part of it. I want to know that after we leave tonight, you’re going to have my number on speed dial. That you’re going to continue to be a part of our lives as much as we are going to be a part of yours and the kids. I’m not going anywhere, Daisy.”
Damn. He really was a politician, the sweet talker.
She worked to blink back the wetness in her eyes, knowing that despite the risks, she wanted to be a part of his life. “All right then. I guess I’m in.”
His face, so drawn and concerned before, opened into a blinding smile. His hand caressed her cheek, the skin underneath his fingertips tingling from his touch.
This was a good man.
She could trust him.
Knowing this, and knowing that after all her inner battles to resist his charms, she didn’t have to fight anymore, need and desire rushed through her…and she didn’t want to wait anymore.
Raising herself on tiptoe, she lifted her mouth until it nearly reached his, happy for the moment when he realized what she wanted and met her halfway.