Page 84 of Claim to Fame

Ethan hardly heard the rest of Hannah’s conversation with his mother. He was too busy picturing the rest of their lives—they’d get married at St. Anthony’s with Caleb officiating and Julie as their flower girl. They’d go for milkshakes at the Dockside Diner on Saturdays and play trivia on Mondays with their friends. They could get a dog, have a baby, build that picket fence he’d heard so much about. The point was, they’d figure it out together.

When Hannah handed the phone back to him, grinning from ear to ear, his insides had gone all buzzy and tight, like a coiled spring vibrating with the restrained need to make his vision a reality.

“Now we’ve both met each other’s mom,” she said.

“Then I guess we’re official now,” he teased as he crawled on top of her, bracing himself on his hands planted on either side of her head.

“Oh, is that what makes us official? The multiple orgasms weren’t enough?” she asked, wiggling beneath him.

“There are never enough orgasms.” He kissed her, slow and lingering, his tongue sliding against hers.

When they pulled apart, she ran her nails down his chest, lightly scraping at his skin. “I’m glad I got to talk to her.”

“Me too, sweetheart. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was booking a plane ticket to come meet you in person as we speak.”

“Better watch out. If my mom catches wind of that, she’ll get the same idea.”

“I want to meet your parents,” he said, gathering her close and sweeping her hair behind her ear.

“My mom will probably grill you about whether or not you want kids,” she said with a nervous half laugh.

He hummed to himself as he studied her eyes, the hint of anxiety creeping in, dimming her sparkle. “Do you want kids?”

She shrugged one shoulder, focusing her eyes on his chest like she did when she was afraid of letting him see too much. “It’s hard to have kids when you work in the theater. Taking time off to be pregnant and have a child is enough to stall most careers, and then even if you do manage to get work again, you miss so much. I don’t know how Liv and Daemon do it.”

He slipped a knuckle beneath her chin, tilting her face up to him. “But do you want kids?”

She bit her lip, eyes wide and vulnerable. “I do. Do you…do you want more kids?”

He smiled, kissing the tip of her nose as that overfull balloon feeling took over again. “I do. I missed so much when Tessa was young, and for so long I’ve thought maybe it wasn’t in the cards for me. Maybe I had my shot at fatherhood and I blew it.”

“You didn’t blow it. Tessa adores you.”

His heart wrenched at the words, and how much he hoped they were true. “She didn’t always.”

“I think you’ll be an amazing father.”

He studied her eyes as the image of Hannah round with his child flashed behind his eyes. Christ, he wanted that. He wanted her and the family they could have together. When she kissed him again, soft and sweet, he filled the kiss with all his hopes, all the deepest desires of his heart. It was too soon for these huge feelings bubbling out of him, too soon to be getting hard at the mere thought of Hannah pregnant with his child—but was it? They’d been dancing around each other for years.

Hannah broke the kiss with a smile that made her glow from within. “I was thinking, why don’t we head back to Aster Bay?”

“Now?” he asked. “I thought you wanted to spend some time in the City.”

“I want to spend time with you. If you want to see the City, then I’m happy to show you around, but it’s your birthday. We should spend it where you’re happiest.”

He nipped at her ear. “I thought we already established we weren’t spending the day in bed?”

She laughed. “I’m serious.” She took his face in her hands and looked deep in his eyes, inviting him into the liquid blue of her own. “Let’s go home.”

Home.

He felt tingly all over, like a bottle of champagne bursting from the cork, like she’d lit every one of his nerves on fire. He kissed her again—would he ever get tired of kissing her?—then pressed his forehead to hers. “I love you.”

The words tumbled out of him on that tingly popped-champagne filling. He was helpless to stop it and, even if he could, he wasn’t sure he would have. He loved her. He was in love with her and he wanted her to know it, to feel it.

“I love you too.”

His heart cracked open, organs rearranging to make room for her inside his chest in the little nest he’d build for her. He met her eyes, so full of hope and tenderness, and he’d never felt like this before, like all the mistakes, all the wrong paths, had somehow untangled themselves and led him here, exactly where he was always supposed to be.

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