Page 87 of The Path To Us

I stare at her long and hard, waiting for her to say the words I need to hear. “You think I’m in love with you, too?”

I don’t say anything, leaning up and planting a kiss on her lips. Soft at first. Barely a whisper. The slightest of touch of my lips to hers.

“Yeah. I do.”

“Oh, holy crap. Those three words are almost as sexy as hearing him say he loves me.”

“What?”

“What, what?”

“What words are sexy?”

“Sorry?”

“Addy. You just said something I said was sexy.”

“No I didn’t.”

She did. She totally did but clearly she didn’t mean to say it out loud. I don’t want to put her in a position that makes her feel uncomfortable so instead of pushing it, I move on.

“Let’s try this instead. I couldn’t…” I close my eyes tightly. Taking my time with her is a battle I’m losing but am determined to win.

“Couldn’t what?”

“As much as I wanted to take you against the door, and about a thousand other times before this right here, I couldn’t take you and make you mine until you knew how I felt. And how I feel is that I’m in love with you, and I hope to God I’ve been reading all the signs between us right and you’re in love with me, too.”

“I do. I love you.”

“You love me,” I confirm, voice full of awe.

“Duh,” she teases, rolling her eyes.

“You love me,” I repeat again because I need to hear her say the words.

“You love me,” she counters with her chin lifted.

“So much I can rarely think of anything else,” I admit.

Her smile is wide and almost comical. She breathes out a sob and covers her mouth to hide her emotions. “Me, too.”

“I love you and you love me and that means something to me, honey.Not just the kind of love that we’ve shared since I beat up that punk for taking your snack in preschool. The kind of love that a man and his woman share for eternity.”

Addy sucks in a breath and tears flood her eyes. When she lowers her hand, she’s smiling a quivery smile. She nods and wraps her arms around me, burying her face into my neck. “I love you an eternity, too.”

“I love you.”

I sit back so I can see her face and relish the feel of her small hands when she cradles my face. “I love you more.”

My nostrils flare and my pulse pounds. I need to be inside her. “Not possible.”

She grins and whispers, “Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that.”

“Guess so.”

She waggles her eyebrows and squeezes her legs together, letting me know she’s totally on board with what I’m thinking about, too. Of all the ways we can show each other just how much we love each other. “It’ll be fun, though. The battle, I mean. I show you. You show me.”

“Maybe I should start showing you right now. I think we’ve said all we needed to say,” I tell her, even though I know we have more to say. But the important stuff, the fact that we’re in love with each other is out in the open now and that’s all I need to know. The rest we can deal with as it comes. I stand up, lean over her, wrapping an arm around her lower back and shifting her so she’s lying down.

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