“I did. And I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure none of the criminal repercussions came back to you.”
That got her attention. She stopped pretending to ignore him as if they weren’t practically glued together and looked up at him, her expression softening.
Of course, that was the exact moment when Frankie’s voice came out of his cell phone’s speaker. “Station Six, Hartigan speaking.”
…
Gina needed a minute to process. Heart beating against her ribs like it was getting ready for a jailbreak, she tore her gaze away from Ford—seeing him muddled her thoughts—and looked around at her neighbors’ houses. No one was out, but curtains were getting moved to the side, no doubt to figure out what the commotion was on her porch.
The chest-tightening, clammy-palmed anxiety about being stared at didn’t materialize, though. Even as mad as she was at Ford, there was no denying that being with him acted as a nerves minimizer.
She vaguely listened while Ford told Frankie what had happened and ordered him to get his ass out to her house to get them out. On autopilot, she hit the end-call button, unable to look away from the man who’d turned her life upside down.
“What do you mean, protect me?” she asked, trying to stay mad at him so she wouldn’t feel how every hard inch of him was pressed against her and how happy her pheromones—and girly bits—were to be near his pheromones—and more—again.
“My superiors knew about the box.” His hand rubbed soothing circles across the small of her back that set off a wave of awareness through her. “I didn’t tell them. They wanted to send someone else to check it out.”
“And you didn’t want that because…?”
“If there was something illegal in the box, I didn’t want it to fall back on you.” The circling against her back stopped as he adjusted his stance, something that brought them even closer together than they had been before. “I wanted to protect you.”
“Why?” It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. Ford always followed the rules. She’d actually seen him reading the rules for Monopoly one night instead of just playing house rules like a normal person. Her breath hiccuped as the first hint of hope started to fill her up.
“Because I love you and I know you. You wouldn’t knowingly have anything to do with your brothers’ illegal activities.”
Of course not. It was ridiculous to assume, but how many times had other people done just that? Ford hadn’t, though. Not even that first night. She may have a problematic last name, but he’d never judged her on that. Her heartbeat sped up, and she had to dig her nails into her palms to keep from melting against him. He still was going to break her heart some day. Might as well be a clean break today.
The sounds of a fire truck’s sirens could be heard in the distance, getting closer with each heartbeat. If she could just make it through the next few minutes, then she’d be free—to do what, she had no idea.
“You lied to me about my brothers, about why you were in my house.” A bittersweet agony gripped her chest and squeezed tight because she he had a way of making her want to believe. She looked up at him, his face a little blurry because of the tears making her eyes watery, and then dropped her gaze. She couldn’t face seeing his reaction when the truth came out. “What else did you lie about?”
“I never lied about how I feel about you,” he said, reaching up with his free hand and brushing back a strand of her hair that had tumbled free.
The sirens grew louder, and she could see the fire engine in her peripheral vision, but she couldn’t look away from Ford.
“The fact is, you deserve better than me. I’m the lucky one, and I fucked it all up because I was too scared of losing you to tell you the truth, to tell you that I’d fallen in love with you.” He cupped her face with his large hands and forced her to look up at him. “I love your laugh, your smile, and the way you look at the world as if it’s like the Victorian, just needing someone to love it.” He smiled down at her, warm and encompassing, and promising so many tomorrows. “I love how you feel in my arms. I love how you make me feel every time you walk into a room. I even love being stuck in this damn hole with you, because it means that I get to see your beautiful face.”
“Don’t,” she said, continuing to fight the hope expanding in her chest. “It’s okay. I know how I look and I really am good with it now.”
The sirens were blaring by now as the engine pulled to a stop in front of her house, but she barely heard them or saw the firefighters getting out. Ford was the only person that mattered.
“I do, too. You’re beautiful, and I love the woman you are because of your face, not in spite of it.” He dipped his head down and brushed her lips with his, setting off a cascade of sensations that left her breathless. “I fucked everything up, and I can’t say I won’t mess up again, but I love you, Gina Luca, and I’m okay with doing whatever it takes to prove that to you.”
She glanced up at him, looking, really looking, at the man who’d twisted up her world and thrown it around, and realized that he was telling the truth. He loved her.
“We should probably let the fire department get us out of here now, or the neighbors will expect this kind of show every night,” she said, because of course she was the woman who said the wrong thing at the wrong time. This was even worse than pointing out the open bar when he’d asked if he could buy her a drink at the wedding.
“Well, I’d heard that public declarations of love were romantic,” he said, dipping his head down for a kiss but stopping millimeters short of touching his lips to hers.
Her heartbeat sped up again. At this rate, she was going to need blood pressure medication or a kiss. She knew which one she preferred. “And I’d heard they were silly.”
“Whoever told you that was an idiot,” he said.
“But I love him anyway,” she said, meaning every single word.
Rising up on her tiptoes, she closed the distance between their mouths, kissing him with every bit of everything she had. At that moment, there were too many everythings to be separated. There was love and hope and anticipation and, yeah, nerves, because the important things in life were always a little bit scary, but in a good way.
“Are you catching all of this, Mom?” Frankie’s voice cut through the euphoria of the kiss.
Well, that and the number of people stomping across her front yard. She looked around. There were way more firefighters there than the call needed. Front and center of the crowd was Frankie, who was holding up his phone. Kate Hartigan was visible in the majority of the screen but there was no missing—event though they were in the little box on the right of the FaceTime screen—Gina and Ford with their kiss-swollen lips.
Heat rushed to her cheeks, but unlike the last time she and Ford had been kissing onscreen, it was from pure, unadulterated happiness.
“Hey Mom,” Frankie said. “Let Finian know that I call dibs on being the best man at the wedding.”
Gina gulped. “He hasn’t asked me to marry him.”
“Good Lord, Ford.” Frankie shook his head. “Do I have to smack your scrawny butt around again, or are you going to get it right finally?”
“Shut up, Frankie,” Ford said. “I’ve got this.”
There wasn’t a ring, and he didn’t get down on one knee. Instead, they were stuck in a hole in her front porch surrounded by firefighters while Ford’s mom watched on FaceTime.