“Yeah, that’s what I said, but believe me, that was a rehearsed speech I’d given to other women. It didn’t apply to you. I wanted you to myself almost from the beginning.”
“Then why were you so distant? Why didn’t you ever let me meet your family? How could you bring another woman to the island when we were together? I don’t understand.”
“It had nothing to do with you,” he said earnestly. “The weekend of my sister’s wedding, I planned to spend as much time with you as possible when I got to St. Simons Island. The truth is, I didn’t want you to meet my family because my family life was so messed up. I didn’t have a good relationship with anyone on my biological father’s side of the family. I didn’t want to introduce you into that mess. Our relationship was so good, I didn’t want to spoil it. That’s why I only let you meet Phineas. That was about the only normal family relationship I had at the time.”
“So you weren’t ashamed of me or something like that?”
“Ashamed of you? No! I thought if you knew how jacked up my family life was, you might not want to see me anymore.” He squeezed her hand. “Sweetheart, you were the one good thing in my life. I wanted to keep you separate from all the ugliness.” He lifted her hand to spread her fingers along his jaw. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
“Maybe you’re not as terrible as you think,” she whispered.
“You make me want to be a better man.”
“Oh, Derrick.”
“It’s true. And you have no idea how much I looked forward to our weekends together.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know how. And I didn’t know how you felt, either. When you mentioned that schmuck, James . . .”
“He’s not a schmuck.”
“When you mentioned that schmuck, James,” he said again in a harder tone, obviously not liking that she defended the other man, “it drove me out of my mind. Up until then, I assumed you weren’t seeing anyone because I wasn’t.”
“I wasn’t ‘seeing’ James. He really was just a friend. But I’m surprised you weren’t seeing anyone else.”
“No one. I swear. In fact, the woman I planned to take to the wedding wasn’t someone I was involved with. I just needed a date because I didn’t want to show up alone, and she didn’t mind accompanying me. My plan was to spend most of my time with you at the villa.” He smiled slowly. “For some reason, all I could think about was you, and no other woman had a chance.”
Eva glowed from the inside out. “I didn’t know I had so much power,” she whispered.
“Don’t take advantage too much. Go easy on me,” he whispered back.
“I don’t think anyone can take advantage of you.” She sighed. “I do love you. With all my heart. Promise me we’ll always talk to each other. Just like this.”
“I promise. Anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Can I eat in bed?”
“Eva . . .”
“You said anything,” she reminded him with an impish grin.
“All right.” He shook his head. “You can have anything you want, sweetheart. All you have to do is ask.”
****
The nurse came in later and gave Eva some pills for the pain. Derrick sat with her until she fell asleep, and then he quietly left the room.
Outside in the waiting area, two couples and what looked to be grandparents sat watching the television mounted in the corner. Cassidy sat flipping through a magazine. Roarke had arrived, and he sat next to her, while Matthew paced the floor restlessly. They all three looked up.
“Consider yourselves lucky to be here for this momentous occasion,” he announced. “Your beautiful niece, Violet Hoffman, has arrived, weighing in at a whopping three pounds, three ounces.”
A cheer of relief went up in the room. Even the other people in the waiting room clapped and smiled. Cassidy ran over and gave him a hug. “I knew it,” she said. “I knew she’d be fine.”