Page 88 of Paging Dr. Breakup
“But—”
He raised a finger. “Wait. I need to say my piece. Randy was partially right about some of it. I made some mistakes. However, I realized some important things over this past month, and I promised myself that I’d fix my errors.”
“I can’t believe you baited Randy into showing his face here.”
“Greed is that guy’s catnip. He couldn’t resist the chance of closing the deal.”
“I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions when I saw you meeting with him.”
“You weren’t exactly wrong, Deirdre.” He dropped his hands on her blanket-covered shoulders, and he hauled in a shaky breath. “I made other mistakes. With you.”
She studied him for a beat. “We both did.”
“Listen, I can’t fight a ghost.”
“I never asked you to,” she said. “Never once.”
“I know that. It was me. I was the one fighting to be better than your best memories of Elijah. Now I realize that it doesn’t matter. We can both love Elijah and remember his life. I finally got it through my hard head that I measure up on my own.”
“Calvin.” Her eyes turned watery. “What are you saying?”
“I want to be the man for you. Not in the past. In the present. I want to be the right man, right now, and maybe for years to come. What do you say?”
The blanket fell to the ground as she kissed him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Deirdre closed thefew inches between them and kissed Calvin, loving the feel of his firm lips on hers. The familiar scent of him. His strong arms around her.
After a minute, she pulled her head back, breathless. “It was never a competition, you know. I loved Elijah. True. But I-I love you, as well. You are two amazing men. Two different men. Two different times. Two different Deirdres.”
His eyes shimmered. “You love me?” he said.
“Absolutely. My heart wants you, Calvin.” She kissed him again, then drew back. “What about your future? Your plans? Are you thinking here? Seattle? Or—”
“As long as I’m with you, that’s a future I can look forward to.” With his thumb, he brushed a tear from her cheek. “I love you with everything that I am, Deirdre. You have no idea. If I’m lucky, you’ll let me try and show you.” He kissed her as everyone around them cheered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spied Mav and Lee hugging each other. Aggie rested her head on Bruce’s shoulder. The Smith family, including a smiling Gordy, all clappeed.
Tuli waved at the crowd, phone still raised and recording. “Yoohoo! Don’t I get a prize for raising funds for hospiceandgetting these two kids together?”
“How do you figure all of that?” Bruce groused as he turned around.
“They bonded in the ED over my leg, which got the ball rolling. Then I dunked Deirdre and Calvin rescued her. When he was feeling all pumped up, he sacked the bad guy. Now he’s riding a high filled with success and love. To think it all started right here.” He patted his chest. Tuli actually strutted a few steps until he winced as he stumbled with his bum leg. Retrieving the cane that Louise handed him, he huffed, “Once again, I get no credit.” He planted his cane firmly in the ground, muttering to anyone that would listen.
Calvin laughed, then sobered as he looked around at family and friends. “Everyone, we also need to come clean about the dating situation.”
“Oh.Ohh,” Deirdre said. “That’s right. They don’t know.”
“We have to confess to another crime,” he said. “We were pretending to date so you all would stop bugging us.”
No one said anything, until everyone burst out laughing.
“Good one, Calvin. We all knew the truth because we have eyeballs and brain cells.” Mav grinned. “You two are terrible at pretending.”
Lee chimed in, “Hopefully, you two peas in a pod are better at treating patients and writing hospital policy than you are at fake dating.”
“What?” Deirdre asked.
