Page 57 of Wishing Hearts

“Is that I don’t push you away,” he answers. “And that I’m honest.”

I nod.

“I’m scared,” he says. “That’s the truth. Days like today? They seem too perfect to be real. It’s too easy, and as soon as I stop to think about it, I can’t help but wonder when it’s all going to fall apart. Did you even want kids, Sam? Was that in your plan? Because I’m guessing you sure didn’t expect that when you asked me out for beers. You didn’t expect all of…this.”

“Stud,” I say lightly, tugging his hand up to my mouth and kissing his knuckles. I’m starting to get an idea of where Winnie gets her rambling from. “No, I wasn’t expectin’ all this. But I am so fuckin’ glad we didn’t hook up that first night like I was expectin’. ’Cause if we had, I never would’ve gotten to hear you tell me about your dog and the fact that you were a stripper.”

He croaks out a little laugh.

“I never would’ve heard your voice get all sleepy and soft,” I go on. “I wouldn’t have found out you’re a person I wanted to learn more about. I might not have stalked you down and found all of…this.” I wave my hand around, encompassing him, his house, and everything in it. “I like this, Harrison. I did want kids. Do want ’em.”

“You do,” he says, sounding relieved.

I huff a laugh. “Yeah, I do. And I want a partner to come home to. A family of my own. Someday,” I add softly, not wanting to scare the man off. There’s a difference between talking about hypotheticals and permanently implanting myself into his life a couple weeks in. But I do want him to know… “Honestly, Harrison, you’re pretty much the perfect package from where I’m standin’.”

“God, Sam.” He shakes his head. “No one but you would describe me and my baggage that way.”

Because you’re mine. You’re perfect for me and no other.

I don’t say it. It’s too much. One step too far for tonight. But I think it might be true.

“Well, I like you and your baggage,” I tell him.

Harrison is quiet for a moment, playing with my fingers with one hand, the other resting idly on Tigger’s head. “The last guy,” he says slowly, eyes pinging to me, “wasn’t a dog person.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Your most recent ex? From, what…four years ago?”

He nods. “Yeah. He, uh, never really took to Tigger. Or Winnie, for that matter.”

“What a dipshit.”

Harrison huffs a laugh, but I shake my head.

“Seriously. The guy clearly wasn’t for you,” I point out. “You’re a damn vet, Harrison. And a father. How was that gonna work?”

“He was good on paper,” he answers, eyes swinging to me before landing back on my hand. He continues to play with my fingers, and the gentle ministrations send a shiver up my arm. “But that’s why…why Winnie was watching you oddly the last time you were here. When you were down on the floor with Tigger. Hank was never like that.”

“Oh,” I say, understanding now why that moment seemed like something of importance. “Well, I am an animal person.”

“Yeah,” Harrison says with a little smile.

“I like dogs. And kids.”

“Yeah,” he says again.

The acknowledgement that Harrison and I are in tune on those matters hangs between us for a silent moment. Honestly, I think we’re in tune in just about every matter. But I do wonder if he realizes he compared me to Hank, a prior boyfriend, in his daughter’s eyes.

“I don’t know when I’ll be ready to tell Winnie,” he says, as if answering my unspoken thoughts.

“That’s all right,” I tell him.

He shakes his head a little. “I don’t want to be dishonest. I mean, it’s not dishonesty exactly, what I told her. The fact that we’re friends. But we’re more than that. She’s going to see it.”

I give him a slow nod.

“What I mean to say,” he goes on, “is that when I tell her you’re my exclusive dating partner—”

“Harrison.” I cut him off with a chuckle. “Can we call it like it is?”

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