Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Donovan
I’d blame it on the pizza, and my lack of sleep, but the truth is that I just handed my heart over to Delia Hawthorne and I’m so fucking relieved.
The weight of that confession has been bearing down on me for weeks and now that it’s out there, I feel free, so I repeat the words again so there’s no mistaking how desperately I mean them, “I love you with all of my heart, Delia.”
“I love you, too.”
I stare at her lips. I didn’t just hear that. There’s no way in hell that this woman sitting in front of me feels exactly the same way I do. She’s never indicated that she wants more than fun and a co-parent arrangement with me.
“You love me?” I ask, my voice cracking as I do.
“I do,” she answers in a way that briefly conjures up an image of her in a white wedding dress and me in a tux facing each other with rings on our fingers.
“Delia,” I breathe out her name slowly. “You’re sure?”
“I thought I loved someone once,” she tells me. “But I know now that’s not what it was.”
I’m not shocked to hear that she cared deeply for a man in the past. She’s a kind woman with an enormous heart. It makes sense that another man would have made her feel cherished and adored.
“He never made me feel the way you do,” she explains her eyes welling with unshed tears. “You make me feel as though I’m the only person in the room, or the world for that matter.”
“You are to me.”
That parts her lips in a soft smile. “I doubted that a little bit since you went to Boston.”
“Why?” I ask. “What did I do?”
“Nothing,” she assures me. “Matt mentioned something last night about you going to conferences but not actually attending them. Then he said there was a picture of you with one of Carolyn’s friends.”
“Who knew Matthew was such a gossip?” I toss her a grin.
“My emotions were all over the place.” She shakes her head. “I’ve spent today thinking about Paris, and New York, and our baby, and our future.”
I drag her hand to my lips to kiss her palm. “I don’t care if that future is here or in Paris or the North Pole. I mean that, Delia. I’ll go wherever your dreams take you.”
“Not to the North Pole.” She laughs before that fades. “Not to Paris either.”
Confused, I perk both brows.
“I’ve been offered the job a few times, and this was the first time I’ve seriously considered it,” she admits. “I gave myself a hard deadline to make a decision about it, but then I got pregnant and fell in love and my decision was clear.”
“You’ll marry me one day?”
Her mouth falls open. “Donovan!”
“One day, Delia.” I kiss her softly on the lips. “I’m not asking today although you’d say yes.”
She nods. “I might.”
I laugh. “You would.”
“I love learning,” she shifts the subject back to more stable ground.
I know I caught her off guard with the semi-marriage proposal, but I’ll circle back to it in due time.
“As much as I’ve loved learning, it’s time for me to use that knowledge in a way that benefits other people.” She studies my face. “I have a couple of ideas I’d love to run by you sometime.”
“Anytime.”
“Soon, but not now.” She yawns. “I want to talk about Boston and the other conferences.”
That discussion will take time and more emotional effort than I have the capacity for right now. I just learned that the woman I love is in love with me. I want her in my future so that means I need to share my past.
“We will talk about all of it tomorrow.” I cradle her beautiful face in my hands. “Let me take you to bed, Delia. You need to sleep.”
She nods. “I do.”
Again, those words spark another image within my mind. This time it’s of her in that wedding dress, twirling in my arms on a dance floor as the people we love surround us.
All of the people we love, including the one I love and miss who lives in Boston.