The baby only had eyes for Dylan. He smiled and gurgled, making the other women laugh.
“Christ,” Miranda looked at Gypsy. “That boy is so damn spoiled.”
“Which is exactly the way it should be.” Dylan brought the baby close again and looked at his sisters. “You two get out of here so I can boss Emma around while I play with Coop.”
Miranda gave Emma’s arm a squeeze. “Keep him in line.”
“I’ll make it up to you.” Gypsy repeated Miranda’s gesture with a warm hand on Emma’s arm and a conspiratorial smile. “You two look good together.” To Dylan she said, “His diaper bag and jumpy seat are by the back door.”
“Got it.”
The sisters made their way down the hall and out of the house, but Emma couldn’t take her eyes off the sight of Dylan and Cooper.
“Cute, right?” Dylan asked, smiling at Cooper.
“Wow,” Emma said on an exhale. Emotions swirled in her chest and tightened her throat.
“What’s wrong?”
Emma tore her gaze away from Cooper. “Nothing.” She picked up the trowel and trough. “Do you want me to keep working on this, or is there something else you want me to do?”
“Em.” He took her chin between his fingers, forcing her to look at him. His voice was soft, his gaze worried. Cooper’s sweet baby scent made her heart hurt. “What is it?”
God, she couldn’t breathe. “He just…he looks so much like you.”
Dylan released her chin and cupped her face, his gaze confused. Cooper cooed and brought his pudgy little fist to his mouth.
The sound, the sight…it twisted a knife in her chest. “This should be us.” The words came out weak. “This should all be ours—the house, the baby, your sisters, a full family. This should be us.”
His eyes sparked with excitement, filled with love. He stepped closer, stroked a hand down her arm. “It can be. It absolutely can be.” His voice was deep and serious. “We can have it all. Each other, all the babies we always wanted, a home, the rest of our lives together. I love you, Emma. I’ve always loved you.”
His words opened a spring inside her, and tears fell. It was a bittersweet pain. So bitter. So sweet. Everything she’d always wanted. Way too late.
“We could have had everything, but you veered off that path. You put distance and time between us. When we should have been growing together, we were growing apart. Our lives have taken completely different directions. If there was one thing you taught me, it’s that love alone isn’t enough. Not near enough. We’re different people now. We can’t just leap across time and distance and be together again because we have feelings for each other. That’s not the only thing a lifelong relationship is made of. You should know that by now.”
“I know love alone isn’t enough. I do. But that’s not all I’m offering. There may be nothing I can do about the past, but there is a lot I can do to make our future years amazing. I know we’re different people with different lives, but we can make it work.”
Cooper cooed happily, and his soft little hand found Emma’s face. The sweet sensation pried Emma’s heart open. She took the boy’s open hand and kissed his palm, breathing in his baby scent.
She hadn’t thought of having kids since she left Germany. Not even when she’d agreed to marry Liam. But just being in proximity to a boy with Dylan’s DNA swimming through his body made the old desire bloom inside her like an ache.
Dylan slipped his free arm around Emma’s waist and pulled her close. The baby between them seemed to complete the circle. Emma could so easily imagine this scenario with her own baby fulfilling her life in a way she hadn’t believed possible in nearly a decade.
She was exhausted from trying to keep Dylan at arm’s length—emotionally and physically. Now, she relaxed, and Dylan was right there to support her. Emma pressed her face to his neck and breathed him in.
“That’s it,” he murmured. “I’ve got you, Em.”
15
Dylan picked up the last two-by-four cluttering the room and tossed it into another bedroom. He stood back to look at the space, now ready for reframing. With the walls between the bedrooms gone, the space was massive and perfect for a Jack-and-Jill bathroom.
In the living room, Emma giggled. The sound spilled through him like a miracle drug, healing a heart he’d believed would be broken forever.
Once she’d taken Cooper in her arms, she hadn’t let him go. She’d been sitting in the living room on the cushions where they’d made love far too long ago, playing with the baby for almost two hours. She’d fed him, changed his diaper, and had him giggling right along with her the entire time.
Dylan had always known she would be an incredible mother. He was inching closer to being able to share that joy with her. And, God, there was nothing he wanted more. He just had to figure out how to prove to her that he’d changed. That he was all-in. That, short of death, he’d never leave her again.
He wandered down the hall and into the