Page 154 of Attached At Heart
He was smiling at me. It wasmysmile. “More than fucking okay.”
I watched as Blake lifted the ring, holding it out to me as if checking whether I wanted to wear it now. And fuck yes, I wanted to wear it now. At the very least, try it on. I held out my hand for him, and he slid it onto my finger.
Unsurprisingly, it was a perfect fit.
My mind reeled as I thought back through everything he had said, imagining a wedding. A full-blown wedding where I got to marry Blake.Remarry Blake.
“I get to pick out my own wedding dress?” I asked, still processing this reality.
He nodded. “I thought that might make you happy.”
“Youmake me happy, Blake.”
It wasn’t about the dress. It was about the choices. And I knew he understood that.
“I know, baby,” he reassured. “But it’s okay to want the whole experience, too. To want more for yourself and for us.”
I worried my bottom lip as my brain continued to race through the future, thinking about the things that lay ahead for me and Blake. I loved every bit of it. And I just wanted to make sureheloved every bit of it, too. He was letting me choose. I knew in my bones he deserved that same right.
“What?” he probed, studying my expression carefully.
“What about…kids?” I ventured, sitting back on my heels and considering him. “I know you want them, and I—I’m still thinking.”
“I want a family,” he said like it was a correction. “Delaney, it’s only ever been you. I only want kids if it’s with you. And if that’s not what you want, then we’ll create our own family. Our family is us. It’s me and you and Bryan and all my siblings and all the kids they’re going to have. Our family can be whatever we want it to be.”
I stared at him, in awe of who he was and how much he meant to me. And not for the first time, I saw myself thinking that it would be a damn shame if I didn’t let this man give me the kind of family I always wanted to have myself but never dared to dream about because I didn’t trust anyone enough to give it to me. But after everything we’d been through, and especially recently, I trusted Blake. With my life, with all of it. That much I knew.
“You’d be a really good dad, Blake.” The words carried in the wind. “Sometimes I think you were born to be a dad.”
“You’d be an amazing mom, Lane.” He swallowed, and I saw something shine in his gaze. “And I know I was born to love you. And every part of you. Maybe that includes your kids. Maybe not.”
“Our kids,” I amended. I wouldn’t be having my kids; I’d be having our kids.
“Our kids,” Blake repeated, looking like he was struggling to contain himself at the thought.
My heart damn near exploded.
“I have so much I want to do.” I stared at the empty plot of land, letting my eyes trace every rock, every pebble that lay upon it. “This clinic might be my baby for a while, but then…”
“Babies grow up,” Blake said softly, finishing my thought.
“Become self-functioning,” I added. “And then maybe…” A smile lit up my face.
“Maybe,” Blake agreed, matching my grin. He looked at me likemaybewas just fine with him. Like he was content withimagining possibilities and getting to explore all of them with me, even if some were just ideas. “You can have it all if you want it all, Delaney. You don’t have to pick, sweetheart. We’ll just take on one dream at a time, okay?”
A dream.
Having a family with Blake really was something out of a dream, something I didn’t think was possible. I grew up thinking I could never be a mom when the only example I had of motherhood was a painful one.
But that day with Blake’s family, when I’d walked into Natalie’s home and saw how love could be shaped differently, changed things. When I’d held Delilah and seen the way Gemma looked at her, like she’d do anything for her. When I’d experienced how Blake and his brothers had rallied for Natalie and Chloe in the last year. That was family, that was parenthood, that was a redefinition of my upbringing.
I took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“You have time to think about it.” Blake spoke the words I needed to hear. “Just let me know when the puzzle comes together for you.”
I nodded, knowing I had all the pieces. He’d given me all of them. I just needed to line them up in a way they fit. And I knew they would soon.
“Have you thought of a name for your baby yet?” He changed the subject, pointing to the ground beneath us.
