Hallie #2
He's quiet for a long moment, his fingers tracing absent patterns on my shoulder. When he finally speaks, his voice is rough with emotion. "Funny. I was just thinking the same thing."
"Yeah?"
"Best deal I ever made." He tips my chin up, those blue eyes serious despite the smile tugging at his mouth. "Getting you to fake date me. Smartest thing I've ever done."
"Second smartest," I correct, rising up to brush my lips against his. "Smartest was not letting me go when things got hard."
"Never letting you go," he murmurs against my mouth. "Not an option, Mrs. O'Connor."
The kiss is soft and sweet, nothing like the desperate passion from two years ago. This is different. Better. The kiss of two people who've chosen each other every day since, who've built a life together from the ground up.
Who still can't keep their hands off each other, even with a baby between them and half the town milling around outside our curtained sanctuary.
Rosie chooses that moment to wake up fully, her tiny face scrunching before she lets out a wail that could wake the dead.
"Timing," Caius says ruefully, pulling back.
"She gets it from you." I'm already shifting her, checking if she needs changing or just wants attention. "You've always had impeccable timing."
"Hey, I timed the fake dating proposal perfectly."
"You were drunk."
"Drunk on your smile." He says it so seriously that I can't help but laugh.
"That's the worst line you've ever used."
"But it worked." He grins, unrepentant, reaching out to let Rosie grab his finger with her tiny fist. "Got you to marry me, didn't it?"
"Actually, I proposed to you."
"Details."
The curtain yanks open, revealing Ryan holding a squirming Liam. "Are you two seriously making out in there? At a library event? With your infant daughter?"
"We were not making out," I say primly, though my kiss-swollen lips probably tell a different story. "We were testing the structural integrity of Caius's construction."
Ryan's expression suggests he doesn't believe that for a second. "Right. Well, Mom wants everyone for the official ribbon cutting. Try to keep it PG for the next hour. Please."
He disappears before either of us can respond, dragging Liam back toward the circulation desk.
"He's never going to let us live this down," Caius observes.
"Probably not." I stand carefully, Rosie now fully awake and demanding attention. "Worth it, though."
"Definitely worth it."
The ribbon-cutting ceremony is exactly as cheesy as expected.
The mayor shows up with oversized scissors and gives a speech about community investment and literary spaces.
Mrs. Henderson from the historical society shares a long-winded story about the library's founding that loses half the audience after the first five minutes.
Through it all, Caius stands beside me, one hand on the small of my back, occasionally taking Rosie so I can shake hands or accept congratulations. He doesn't seek the spotlight, letting me handle the public-facing parts while he stays steady and present beside me.
Exactly like he's always been.
Afterward, when the crowd finally disperses and the library returns to its normal quiet hum, we collapse onto one of the reading nook's benches. Rosie's asleep again, worn out from all the attention. Liam convinced Ryan to take him to see Caius's truck, buying us a few precious moments of peace.
"I can't believe you built this." I run my hand along the smooth wood of the built-in shelf, admiring the craftsmanship. "When did you even have time?"
"Nights." He shrugs like it's nothing, but there's pride in his eyes. "After you and Rosie went to bed. Ryan helped sometimes."
"Ryan helped?" I stare at him. "My brother? The one who can barely hammer a nail straight?"
"He wanted to." Caius's expression softens. "Said something about making up for lost time. For the two years we could have been together if he hadn't been so stubborn about the bro code."
My throat tightens with unexpected emotion. "He said that?"
"More or less. There was more cursing involved. And he definitely hit his thumb with a hammer at least twice." Caius grins. "But yeah. He wanted to help build something for his sister. For us."
I lean into him, careful not to jostle the baby sleeping in her carrier on the floor beside us. "I love you," I whisper. "Have I mentioned that today?"
"Once or twice." His arm comes around me, solid and sure. "But I never get tired of hearing it."
"Good. Because I plan on saying it approximately ten thousand more times before we die."
"Only ten thousand?"
"Per year."
He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest where my ear rests against it. "I love you too, Hal. More than I ever thought possible."
We sit there in our little corner of the library, surrounded by romance novels and fairy lights and the life we've built together. Outside the curtained nook, patrons browse shelves and check out books and go about their days.
But in here, it's just us. Just like it's always been, even when we were pretending it wasn't real.
"What are you humming?" Caius asks after a moment.
I hadn't even realized I was doing it, the tune escaping unconsciously as I sometimes do when shelving books or feeling particularly content. "50 Cent. 'In Da Club.'"
"Our daughter's first lullaby is going to be rap music, isn't it?" There's amusement in his voice, that familiar teasing tone that's always made my heart skip.
"Absolutely." I tilt my head to grin up at him, feeling the warmth of his body against mine. "She needs to know her roots. Where she comes from."
"Her roots are a mechanic and a librarian in a town of three thousand people," he points out, his fingers absently playing with a strand of hair that's escaped from my messy bun. The corner of his mouth quirks up in that crooked way that still undoes me every single time.
"Exactly. Small-town spicy romance." I trace the line of his jaw, feeling the slight stubble that's already growing back despite him shaving this morning. "The best kind."
He catches my hand, pressing a kiss to my palm. "The only kind I want."
Rosie stirs in her carrier, making tiny mewling sounds that suggest she'll be fully awake soon and demanding to be fed. Our peaceful moment is ending, reality creeping back in with its demands and schedules and responsibilities.
But that's okay. Because this is our reality now. This beautiful, chaotic, perfectly imperfect life we've created together.
"We should probably get her home," I say reluctantly. "Before she decides to wake up the entire library."
"Probably." But we don’t move yet, stealing one more minute in our sanctuary.
Finally, Caius stands, offering me his hand with that grin that still makes my knees weak. "Come on, Mrs. O'Connor. Let's get our girl home."
I take his hand, letting him pull me up and into his arms for one more kiss in the stacks.
Best deal I ever made.
Best decision either of us ever made.