I glance up at him, surprised. As far as I know, he hasn’t been in a serious relationship with anyone—or anything—aside from his Mustang in years. “Who was she?”
He shrugs and his focus drops to the concrete. “Someone it would have been really hard to be with. There were a lot of things standing between us. She got scared and walked away and I…let her. I let her go when I should have done everything I could to convince her we were worth fighting for. Missed her every day since.”
“I’m sorry,” I say.
A wry smile curves one side of his mouth. “Yeah, well, don’t be sorry. Be smart and learn from my mistakes.”
I open my mouth to promise I’ll try, but before I can speak, a voice calls my name from across the street. Even before I turn, I know it’s Mick coming to convince me we’re worth fighting for.
But Jamison’s spared him the trouble.
On impulse, I throw my arms around his neck, giving him a fierce hug.
He laughs. “You’re welcome. Now get in there and fight.”
“I will,” I promise as I pull away, turning to watch Mick jogging across the street.
As soon as his eyes meet mine, I know fighting is the right call.
All I want to do is take him home and show him how much I love him, to prove to him that I’m prepared to be his port in the storm, his hero when the chips are down, and the person who stands by him no matter how hard things get.
Or how scared I am.
Scared is okay, as long as I don’t let fear convince me to run away from my most important person.
Chapter Twenty-One
Faith
I jog across the parking lot, meeting Mick near the picnic table where we shared lunch yesterday, every step making me feel lighter.
“Don’t go,” he says, coming to a stop in the gently greening grass. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” I step closer, not missing the flash of relief in his blue eyes. “I should have stayed. Or waited outside the door. Next time, I promise I will. I promise I’ll be there when you need me, no matter what.”
He swallows, his eyes searching mine for a long moment before he wraps me up in his arms, hugging me so tight I can barely breathe.
But I don’t miss oxygen. Who needs air when you have the arms of the person you love holding you so close you know he’s never going to let you go?
Never.
No matter what.
“Thank you,” he says, his voice rough with emotion as he pulls back to look down at me. “I love you. So much.”
“And I love you.” I run a gentle hand through his hair, which is even wilder than it was a few minutes ago, cluing me in that the rest of the meeting probably didn’t go well.
“Even though my dumb mistake is going to change everything?” he asks, uncertainty creeping into his expression. “I know this isn’t what you signed up for. Shared custody of a baby is going to be hard. And I can promise you Bridget will do everything she can to make it even harder.”
“And it will be a lot of work,” I add. “And scary, and I’m sure we’ll both make mistakes. And I can’t promise I won’t freak out every now and then, but…” I lean into him, loving the feel of his warm, strong body pressed against mine. “But I love you. You having a baby with someone else complicates things, and I can’t pretend I’m happy about it, but it doesn’t change the way I feel.”
He shakes his head, obviously still not completely convinced. “Are you sure? I won’t be as free as I am now. There won’t be time for Kilimanjaro or a lot of the other things we planned.”
“I don’t need Kilimanjaro.” I rest my hand on his slightly scruffy cheek. “All I need is you.”
He blinks, a pained expression flitting across his face that I understand completely. After years of being so certain, so sure, so convinced that love was never going to find its way to my lonely corner of the world, sometimes the happiness I feel when I’m with Mick is almost painful.
It’s like medicine applied to a wound, hurting as it heals, but a blessing.
No doubt about it.
“You feel like a miracle right now,” he says, running his hand through my hair, letting his fingers play through the strands.
“You feel like the man I want to be naked with within the next twenty minutes,” I whisper, smiling at the surprise that lights his eyes. “I’m not going to let your ex ruin a single night of our life together,” I continue, threading my fingers together behind his neck. “And that starts tonight.”
His lips curve at the edges. “I keep thinking I can’t love you more, and then…” He sighs. “What did I do to deserve you?”