“I’m confused on your need to talk at all,” she managed. “It’s unlike you.”
“You’re right. But as I said, things change. I’ve changed.” He tipped her face up to his and looked into her eyes. God knows what he saw there. Most likely a good amount of stubbornness because his gaze lit with wry humor . . . and damn. She’d missed him so much. She had to bite her lip to keep the words. He wasn’t getting her words, none of them, not a single one.
“Okay,” he said gently. “How about this instead—I’ll talk, you listen.”
She lifted a shoulder, as if to say: Look at me not caring, even as her pulse pounded as though she’d been running uphill.
He smiled; she could feel it against her jawline where he bent to nuzzle her, making her knees weak, damn him.
“You’re right,” he murmured. “I’m not an open book, not even close. You’re not the only one who carefully guards their heart, Zoe. It’s my default mode and it’s going to take me some time to get this right. I’m going to need some patience here, and you might even have to smack me upside the back of the head once in a while.”
“Only once in a while?” she asked.
He set a finger on her smart-ass lips. “No, you’re just listening now, remember? I’m being as open and honest as I know how here, babe. With you more so than I’ve ever been with anyone else.”
At that, she felt her heart melt more than a little. She stared into his eyes and saw that he spoke the truth. While her mind was spinning over that, he reached over and shut off the oven.
“Hey,” she said.
“Just making sure we don’t burn the place down while we figure this out,” he said, and while she scrambled for something appropriately scathing to say, he apparently decided he was done standing. He kicked a chair away from the table and sank into it, pulling her down on top of him.
“There’s nothing to figure out,” she said, the words not quite having the impact intended since she was straddling his lap. “I threw myself at you. And you shut yourself off from me. You were gone for a week. Seven damn days, Parker, and I spent every last one of them pining away for you.”
A full, genuine smile curved his mouth at this. “Pining? You?”
She crossed her arms, feeling pissy. “I didn’t mean that. Forget I said that.” She huffed out a breath. “I just missed you, dammit. A little.”
He was still grinning when he gripped her hips in his big hands and yanked her in closer so that not even a piece of paper could fit between them. “You going to run scared?” he asked.
She gaped at him. “You’re the one who let me go! You took off! You’re the big, fat baby here, not me.”
He went very serious. “And I’ll regret that to my dying day, Zoe. I was an idiot, a complete dumbass. I know that now. I want to be a part of your life. If I’m being honest, I want to be the most important part.”
“My life is in Sunshine,” she said.
“I get that. I’m interested in having a home base, too, but you’ve got to know that the home base I’m thinking of is you. Not a house. Not a town. You. As long as you’re with me, I don’t care where we live. Now it’s your turn. You’ve got to give me something here, a crumb, anything. I’m a desperate man, Zoe.”
She blew out a breath, feeling the last of her fear drain away as her heart bloomed and opened, warming her from the inside out. “You’re a better detective than this,” she said quietly. “I’ve managed to sabotage every single relationship that’s come my way except for the one I have with you. You’re the one I want. I love you back, Parker. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“God, Zoe.” He touched his forehead to hers. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you, but I plan on spending the rest of my life proving to you I’m worth it.”