Chapter 24 I Have a Baby on My Spine #4
Warmth cascaded and pooled beneath her breastbone like spilled bottles of acrylic paint. She felt hot and bright and messy and heartbreakingly honest.
She’d always believed the things he’d said, and she believed him now more than ever, because Elliot had sped through town to get someone Lainey loved to the hospital. Just as he’d sped down the interstate to get to her. Then he’d stood outside for hours, waiting for a single look.
That was the kind of person Elliot was: steadfast and sure. Dependable. He remembered everything and was bad at lying. He loved hard and fell fast and was someone who showed up for the people who mattered to him, again and again. And Lainey mattered. Full stop.
She could probably list a hundred more things, but it would hardly scratch the surface of why she was in love with him, too.
His eyes flicked to hers, no doubt seeing everything in a single glance.
“Elliot, why couldn’t you have told me about the contract terms right then?”
“I won’t make excuses, only say that I wish I had.”
He reached his arms over her knees and pulled open the glove compartment with a soft click. Folded papers fell open on her lap. On the front page, she saw her name. And Elliot’s name. Her address. And—
“I was going to mail that to you today,” he explained. “But then Bree requested a ride to the hospital, and then the day kind of got away from me.”
“What is this?” she asked.
He placed an arm on the roof and leaned into the opening of the passenger door.
“It’s a postnuptial agreement. This document makes it very clear that I have no current or future claim to your home.
And I’m signing over the surrounding three acres to you, effective immediately, so you can sell it to whoever you want for way more than I could ever hope to pay.
You’ll have plenty of money. You’ll be able to afford good health care here, or start a new life anywhere.
France. Sweden. Australia. Wherever. And you can divorce me, if that’s what you want. ”
“Is that what you want?”
He tipped his face closer and simply looked at her. Though it wasn’t very simple at all. His eyes were staring straight into her bones, so intense, so…hopeless. “I want you to have everything you want.”
She blinked away the tears burning at the corners of her eyes. “God, I’m so mad at you,” she confessed through a wet laugh.
“I know,” he replied. His voice had this dreadfully melancholy way about it that she could hardly stand.
She shook her head. “You don’t get it at all.
Because what I want is to stop missing you.
” Tears streamed down her face. “I want to be excited that I finally have a way out. You know, you’ve basically ruined traveling for me now, because if I ever see the Eiffel Tower, or the Sydney Opera House, or…
I don’t actually know what’s in Sweden…whatever it has, I’ll hate it because you won’t be with me. ”
She fisted his shirt by the collar and tugged him down to her level.
His dark eyes locked with hers like he was scared that if he looked away, even for a moment, she would disappear.
“You were right about me. I wanted it both ways with us—the safety of this commitment without ever really letting my guard down. I couldn’t imagine a world in which someone I loved as much as I love you could love me back. ”
“You love me?” he asked. It was painfully sweet, a Jolly-Rancher-trapped-in-a-cavity kind of sweet.
“Yes.” She let out a sad little laugh. “And it’s terrifying, because this isn’t like one of my projects—I don’t know if any of this is going to work out. And I’m not good at believing people won’t let me down. I treat everyone like they might hurt me, so when they do, I’m not surprised.”
“I…can relate to that.” His laugh was hesitant, but hopeful.
“In spite of everything, I trust you. So if you think you can trust me, too, I want to be with you. We can divorce or stay married or date…whatever you want to do, I want to try.”
He peered down at her for a good long while, a smile growing from his mouth to his eyes to every inch of him. When Lainey started to wonder if he was ever going to speak again, he dropped a knee down to the pavement, resting his forehead on her thigh for a moment before looking up at her again.
Lainey gripped the cushion of the passenger seat, her heart in her throat. “What are you doing?”
“Lainey Davis,” he said, taking both of her hands in his and placing his fingers on her ring. “Will you stay married to me? For real this time?”
“Yes,” she answered, her joy spilling over into tears.
“Oh, thank god.” He rose to his feet and picked her up by her hips.
Her arms and legs wrapped around him and her lips found his on instinct.
Their kiss was home. It was morning light shining through the windows.
A perfectly worn-in sweatshirt. The shape of a honeycomb.
It was exactly right, because it was theirs.
“So,” Lainey said when she finally came up for air. “If our original deal is off, what do we do now?”
He shrugged as another bus rumbled past. “I think we get to do whatever we want.”