Always You (Adair Family 3) - Page 111
“You know, Lachlan asked me the same thing when I told him how I feel about you.”
“And?”
Mac looked at me as he slowed on the narrow country road that led away from my brothers’ homes. “I want kids with you. I used to think it was too late—”
“You’re still young, Mackennon,” I huffed.
“I know I’m not old,” he said, laughter in his voice. “But to be a father again … forty-five is a wee bit later than usual.”
“But you want kids?” I hung on to that vital part of what he’d said.
“It scares me,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt another child like I hurt Robyn—”
“You would never,” I cut him off again.
“I know.” He shot me another look before turning onto the main road. “Anyway, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. Not that … well, we’re not anywhere near there yet.”
I deflated a little, coming back to reality. Of course we weren’t. I couldn’t even tell the man I loved him yet.
“Right,” I whispered, lecturing myself about sticking to my plans to take things slowly. “We’re not there yet.”
Feeling more than a prickle of glum disappointment, I ignored why that was and prattled on about Brodan’s film to alleviate the sudden tension between us.
29
Mac
“Arro always wants to stay at her house. I’m worried about that.”
“Why?” Iona asked.
“I’m worried she’s afraid of going back to mine. She hasn’t been there since March. Since that night.”
“Have you tried talking to her about it?”
“I’m being a bit of a coward,” I confessed. “I don’t want to burst this bubble we’re in. I don’t want to take her back to a place that might make her change her mind about us.”
“That’s understandable. However, if your relationship is to last, communication is key. Tough discussions can’t be avoided. They only prolong the inevitable. Don’t you think it would be better to do it now?”
“I don’t want to hurt her.”
“If she isn’t ready to be in your house again, then you can support her in that. But I also think it’s important you two talk it through, because it isn’t about the house. It’s about the trust between you.”
Another week passed, but it might as well have been months. That was what it was like to be with Arro. An endless high. I hadn’t known it was possible to be this fucking happy. I’d longed for contentment for so long, and I was sure this would eventually ease into something like that, but right now, I was ecstatic. I was in love for the first time in my forty-five years on the planet. All those years without her seemed like a waste, and yet I’d relive every single second—even the worst—if it led me to this moment with her.
It was the third Saturday since our date at North Star. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Time was acting strangely. Having spent our days at work and much of our nights together at Arro’s, we’d dodged the village. Spending all our downtime at Arro’s bungalow, however, meant there was surely some neighborly gossip about why that was.
But I wasn’t hiding our relationship. We’d worked too bloody hard to make a go of it. We still were.
“Are you ready for this?” Arro asked after we’d parked her Defender in the village’s main car park on Castle Street.
“I am. Are you?”
Her answer was to curl her arm around mine as we walked toward Flora’s. That morning had been a heavy one. Instead of going to the gym, I’d made Arro breakfast in bed.
“What’s all this?” she’d said, blinking sleepily as she’d pushed into a sitting position.
I’d placed the breakfast tray over her, and she grinned up at me in delight. “I want to talk to you about something, and I didn’t want you to have to do it before your coffee.” I smirked at the omelet I’d made. “Then somehow that turned into breakfast.”
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