I stare at him, stunned.
“Mia needs to be loved hard,” Scott goes on. “Fully. She needs people who will love her in a way where there is no question. So I’m here to tell you that I’m glad it’s you. But she needs to be loved openly, unabashedly, by someone who isn’t afraid to make an ass of himself over her. She can never have a question about how you feel. I need you to do that. To be upfront and out loud and public about it.”
My chest is tight with emotion, but I draw myself up straight. “Yes, sir. I can do that.”
Scott nods. “I know you can. I’m sorry if I made it so you couldn’t to this point.”
I stick my hand out to shake his, for the first time in probably nearly a decade. He takes it, but he doesn’t shake my hand. He uses it to pull me into a hug.
And as he squeezes me, I feel the rest of the weight that has been on my shoulders lift.
I watch him leave, and then I head for his daughter’s house.
She opens the door before I even knock. “Oh my God, you’re alive. Please tell me you’re not breaking up with me. I will seriously yell at him. I love him so much. And I absolutely respect him. And I really want the two of you to get along. But we’ll work this out. Please don’t?—”
“I’m in love with you,” I tell her, cutting her off. “I know it’s fast and probably a little nuts, but I am. I have no question about that. I want to date you, I want to be with you constantly, and I want everybody in the entire world to know.”
She stands staring at me, her mouth hanging open.
I move in close until I’m almost on top of her and cup her face in my hands. “Your dad and I are good. He loves you very much, and everything is fine. Better than fine. We’re…really good. He’s happy about us.”
Her hands circle my wrists, and she swallows. “Really?”
“Really.”
She takes a deep breath and then lets it out. “Okay.”
“Well, there is one thing,” I say.
She frowns. “What?”
“You haven’t told me how you feel yet. And if you’ll date me.”
Her smile is bright and wide. “Oh my God, yes, I will date you. David, I am madly in love with you. I have never felt this way before. I want to write the dirtiest stories because of you, but I also want to write sweet, sappy love stories because of you. I want to go four-wheeling, and rock climbing, and yes, skinny dipping.” Her hands come to my waist, and she hooks her fingers through my belt loops, pulling me close. “I want to do everything. I want to cuddle on the couch with you, and go to family birthday parties with you, and I absolutely positively want you to do very dirty things to me in your childhood bedroom at Christmas.”
I stare down at her, my heart feeling like it might burst wide open. “I am up for making all kinds of plans with you, Mia Hansen,” I tell her. “But I have to be honest.”
“Always,” she agrees.
“I’m not really into rock climbing.”
It takes her a beat, then she laughs. “Okay, well, I can go rock climbing with Sloan.”
“We’ll see,” I tell her. “Rock climbing is pretty risky. You have to?—”
She seals her lips to mine.
And I realize I’m okay with her shutting me up this way. For the rest of our lives.
Then she reaches past me and pushes the front door shut with a nice, hard slam. “Why don’t you carry me down the hall to the second room on the left? It will be totally safe. No storms are brewing, and there are no critters or poisonous plants or branches that might scrape up our private parts in there.”
“Branches that might—” I start.
“Never mind,” she tells me. “Just take me to bed, David.”
“You mean have sex indoors?”
She grins. “Think you can handle that, Officer Bennett?”
