Page 111 of Situationship
“I’ve always been a little more advanced.”
She laughed. “That’s good because I’m a little slow on the uptake.”
“Then we make a good team,” he said, and this was when Harley had to lay it all on the table.
“I think I love you.”
His smile was warm and gentle. “I know.”
“How?” She wasn’t even sure until right that second, when a million butterflies took flight in her belly and her heart told her head that this was the guy. This was her guy.
“For a card shark, you have a lot of tells.”
“And one of my tells told you I love you?”
“Yup,” he whispered. “The same one that’s telling me you want to kiss me.”
This time he didn’t wait for her. His mouth came down on hers, and Harley actually felt her life begin. Felt the fear and the insecurities drift out with the tide, as their lips gently glided over one another, drinking each other in.
“Are you going to marry my auntie?” Poppy asked.
Harley pulled back and Bryan laughed. Standing right next to them, looking up with their big blue eyes, were her precious, adorable, snooping nieces.
Bryan hunched down to their level. “I have to get her to move in with me first.”
Poppy looked up at Harley. “Do yous want to moves in with him?”
Her gaze met Bryan’s. His was open and gentle, as he patiently awaited her reply. She decided that he’d been patient enough—he deserved the same kind of fierce loyalty he’d given her.
“Yes.”
“She says yes,” Poppy relayed, and as her little nieces grinned up at her, Harley realized that a life with Bryan meant a life away from being a constant in the girls’ life. She didn’t want to go back to being a drive-by aunt, but she didn’t want to lose Bryan.
“Hey.” He stood. “What did we say about crying?”
“I want to live with you, but I don’t want to leave my family. I’ve just found them . . . I can’t leave them.”
“Good thing I rented us a house in town.”
“You rented a house?” she croaked. “When?”
“Right after you told me you needed time.”
“You’ve been here for a month?” That made her cry more. “How long were you planning on staying?”
“As long as it took,” he said. “And I mean it, as long as it takes. You get to set the pace, the rules. You’re running this rodeo. And before you ask me why again, it’s because you’re it for me, babe.”
“You want to catch sand crabs wif us and Auntie Harley?” Lily asked, and now Harley was crying even harder. That was the first time Lily had ever said her name.
Everything in her world tilted back to right as she watched the man she loved take her nieces’ hands. He looked up at her. “What do you say, Auntie Harley? You want to go catch sand crabs?”
* * *
Teagan rested her head against the kids’ closed door. It took everything she had to keep it together while tucking them in. But the dam finally broke, and every tear felt like it had been torn from her soul.
She’d blown it. Big-time. Colin had reached out to her, asked to stand with her under the umbrella, and she closed it on him. Shut him out and stomped all over his love. He’d had the courage to speak those magical three words and, the first time their love had been tested, she’d thrown it back in his face. Just as she had all those years ago. Only this time, she was present to see the devastation and disappointment on his face—disappointment that he’d trusted her.
That he’d allowed himself to love her again.
