Page 103 of Dreaming at Seaside
He grabbed her hand again and held it tight.
She drew her brows together. “You are the man that I want to be with. I like how you make me feel, and…I’m embracing it. See?” She swatted the skirt of her ridiculous dress. “I like how you take care of me. It makes me want to take care of you and Evan. But I won’t be jerked around. I won’t be treated like I’m expendable. You either take me or leave me, but there is no in between.”
He tightened his grip on her hand. “I don’t have a lot of experience with being in love or taking breaks.” His heart squeezed as her words took root, and he softened his tone. “Or realizing I was the biggest fool on earth.”
“You…” She hooked her finger into the waistband of his pants. “What?”
“I was an idiot. I blamed Evan’s hooking up with the wrong friends on my not giving him enough attention because I was so wrapped up in us that I couldn’t see straight.”
“You made a commitment to Evan, and I respect that.” She stared at his chest. He lifted her chin with his finger.
“I made a commitment to you, too, Bella. To us. I thought I needed to focus solely on Evan, but, babe, I was wrong.Weneed to focus on Evan. Together. I can’t be a good father when I’m spending my emotional energy missing you. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t do a single thing because I love you, Bella, and without you, seeing straight isn’t even an option.” He paused to let his words sink in. “I made an impulsive suggestion because Evan is…”
“Everything, as he should be,” she said softly. “I overreacted. I was selfish and I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re wrong about Evan being everything. Evan was everything until I met you. He is my son, and I love him. But the space he fills in my heart is the space that only a child can fill.” He cupped her cheeks and took a step closer, so they were thigh to thigh, as they should be. “You’re my soul mate. My lover. My friend. The woman I want to spend my life with, and maybe one day, if you want to, you’ll be the mother ofourchild. That side of my heart that Evan fills has room for more, but the other side of my heart? Your side? It only has room for you.”
Her eyes dampened. “Caden.”
“Let me finish, please.” He touched his forehead to hers. She sighed, and when he pressed his hands to her cheeks and lifted her face so he could look deeply into her eyes, a warm tear slid over his thumb.
“I love you, Bella. I love your strength, your loud laugh, the way you think of Evan even when you should be thinking about your work. I love the way you love your friends and your hidden adoration of all things pink. I will always love you, Bella, and I want you in our lives.”
He sealed his lips to hers, and all those empty spots that had appeared over the last few days filled with Bella.
Withthem.
When they drew apart, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper the size and thickness of a business card. “I wanted to give you something to show you that I’m serious about my commitment to you.”
He put the paper in her palm and folded her fingers over it; then he pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand. Caden kissed her forehead.
“Before you open it, please tell me what you’re wearing.”
Bella looked down at her dress and her cheeks flushed. “It’s a prom dress. I bought it to wear to my high school prom, but that was before I realized that girly girls got taken advantage of.”
“So you didn’t wear it?” He loved her so much his heart ached.
She shook her head. “I wore a black dress. But when I saw it in my closet, I remembered how you saw right through me and how you loved that side of me. And how you said to embrace it.” She lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
He kissed her again, and she melted against him.
“Maybe we should go shopping for something from this decade,” he teased.
“Maybe shopping can wait,” she said against his lips.
The sound of tires on gravel drew their lips apart.
“Bella!” Evan dropped his bike and wrapped his arms around the two of them. “You’re here. Jenna said you were in Connecticut, and I thought…” He hugged her again. “I thought you decided to take that job.”
“I missed you, too, Evan.” She ran her eyes between Evan and Caden. “How could I take a job that was so far from my favorite two men?”
He shot a look at Caden. “You’re back together?”
Caden nodded, and Evan did a fist pump. “Yes!Please take him out of here, Bella. He’s been moping around and driving me crazy.”
“Oh, I think I can handle that,” she said with mischief in her eyes.
“Um.” Evan ran his eyes down Bella’s dress. “You might want to change your clothes first. I’m pretty sure that went out of style in the fifties.”
