“What’s wrong?” he asked, his tone gentle.
“The last time I was in this courthouse, I walked out married to Jeff. And as wrong as that decision was, I can’t regret it, because it gave me the twins. It led me to this moment. To you.”
His grip tightened on my hand, and his attention flickered to my lips.
Kiss me.
“There you two are!” Mark called from the head of the stairs. “Let’s get this show started, shall we?”
“Shall we?” Beckett asked, his voice low and rough.
“Yes. Let’s.”
A half hour later, we walked out of the courthouse with a piece of paper that said Beckett was now Maisie and Colt’s father.
I knew it was only to protect Maisie, to give her the very best shot she had at beating the disease, but the moment we’d both signed, it felt more significant than a business transaction.
A tiny but undeniable flame of hope had flared in my heart that it wasn’t just on paper—it was real.
My kids were now Beckett’s, too.
And I was head over heels in love with him.
…
“I hate him!” I swore as I slammed my front door four hours later. Beckett’s headlights faded as he headed back to his cabin.
“Hate who?” Ada asked, coming out of the kitchen.
“Beckett is my guess,” Larry said from the mudroom floor, where he was repairing Maisie’s dollhouse.
“Yes, Beckett!” I snapped. “Oh, thanks, Larry. I really appreciate that.”
“Did the adoption not go well?” Ada asked quietly, pulling me into the office.
“No, it was great. The whole night was perfect! He took me to dinner and ordered wine, and then took me up the gondola to the Village for one of those little open-air concerts and danced with me. The man danced with me! And then he brought me home, walked me to the door, and hugged me. He hugged me good night.”
The worry fell right off her face, and she sighed with a soft smile. “Oh, Ella. You’ve gone and fallen in love with him, haven’t you?”
“He hugged me!”
“Not that I blame you. He’s a good man; he really is. He’s spectacular with the kids, and kind, and dependable, and really easy to look at. Add in his knight-in-shining-armor complex, and you were bound to fall for him.” She took my hands.
“He hugged me,” I whispered.
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing. He’s already made it clear that’s off the table, and I can’t blame him. I’m not exactly baggage free, you know. Two kids, one who is sick, a business to run, huge trust issues. I’m not really what someone like him would look for.”
“And what exactly is he like?”
“Pretty perfect.”
Ada sighed and dropped my hands. “Okay, well, you feel free to stay in here and pout. But just in case you feel like acting your age and doing something spontaneous, Larry and I are taking the guest room for the night. So we’ll be here. All night. And into the morning. You know…just in case.”
“I do act my age.”
“Oh, honey, you don’t, and you never have. You’re not old, not damaged, not a dried-up spinster. You’re twenty-five. So yeah. I’m going to bed.”
I stood in my office, unwilling to move but also unready to take off my heels. That felt a little too much like defeat.
YOU ARE ENOUGH.
I stared at Chaos’s words, chanting them in my head. He was right. I was enough, and I was done being a passive participant in whatever my relationship was with Beckett.
Glancing at Maisie’s handmade diploma, my eyes lingered on Beckett’s choppy handwriting. What was it with military guys and their worse-than-doctor handwriting? His was just as bad as Chaos’s, and that was saying something.
I’d lost Chaos before I could act on my feelings, and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with Beckett.
I left my office, snatched my keys off the entry table, and walked out. I could have sworn I heard an “attagirl,” coming from the guest room window as I climbed into my car, but when I looked back, the room was dark.
“You are enough,” I mumbled to myself the entire time I drove to Beckett’s cabin. His lights were on, so at least I wasn’t waking the man up. I parked the car, and then I swallowed back the slight taste of panic that flooded my mouth, straightening my back as I walked up his steps.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
I set my knuckles to the door before I could chicken out, but in the precious seconds it took for Beckett to answer, I started to grow some very chicken-like feathers around my heart.
“Ella?” he answered, flinging the door open wide. He was still in his suit, but he’d loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button at his throat, revealing a small section of skin that I was suddenly desperate to kiss. “Is everything okay? Is it Maisie?”
“Maisie’s fine,” I told him, both annoyed and loving him more because he thought of her first.
“Oh good. What’s going on? Come on in.” He stepped aside, and I walked into the cabin, heading down the hallway. Where before it had been cold and impersonal, now it had pictures that Colt and Maisie had drawn hanging in various places, like those I found myself staring at on his fridge as I wandered into the kitchen. He’d adapted his “neat and orderly” and let us “complicate” the very space he lived in. Silly, but the pictures calmed a tiny bit of my rampant fear that Beckett would disappear one day.
“Do you want a drink?” he asked slowly.
“No.” I spun around to find him leaned back against the counter. He’d ditched the suit coat on our walk in. “You took me on a date.”
“Yes.” He gave me a sexy little smile as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, and I wanted to kick him.
“You took me on a date. Dinner, dancing, romantic little walk. Then you took me to my door and hugged me. Like I’m your sister.” I stalked forward, and his expression changed, a look of hunger flashing before he got it under control.
“I did. Guilty on all counts.”
“I’m not your sister, Beckett.”
“I’ve noticed.” He sucked in a deep breath and put his hands on the counter, his knuckles turning instantly white.
I brought myself flush against him, nearly groaning at the press of his hard muscles under my fingers as I rested my hands on his chest.
“Well, maybe dates have changed in the last seven or so years, but in my limited experience, they end with a kiss.” I rose up on my tiptoes until my mouth hovered just under his.
“Ella.” He said my name like a plea, but for what? To give us what we both wanted? For me to back away and leave him to sleep with his honor?
“Tell me what you want. Because I want to kiss you. Even if it’s just this once.” I closed the tiny gap between our mouths and brushed my lips over his. How could a man that hard have such soft lips?
His body turned to stone against mine, every muscle locked. Under my fingertips, his heart started to pound.
Growing bolder, I kissed him softly, lingering on his bottom lip. Then I retreated just enough to look into his eyes. The rest of him might be a statue, but those eyes said everything he wouldn’t, and he was a second away from—
His mouth slammed against mine, and the rest of him came alive. One of his hands tunneled through the back of my hair while the other wrapped around my waist and tugged me even closer.
I opened under him, and his tongue swept inside, taking, consuming, learning every line of my mouth. A moan slipped from my lips, and I buried my hands in his hair, tugging gently at the short strands.
Then I kissed him back like I’d been dreaming about for months.
Our mouths tangled, the kiss tasting sweet, like the wine we’d finished after our dance, and just as intoxicating. He sucked my tongue into his mouth, and I eagerly rubbed against his, stroking and caressing. Good God, the man knew what he was doing.
My entire world existed in this kiss, in the feel of Beckett’s arms around me.