“Ah, right. You were looking forward to that.” Stripped down to boxers, he gave her a look that could only be called sizzling. “Are you all loose and limber now?”
“Yes, I guess I am.” That was a lie. Her muscles were tighter than ever due to the question she needed to ask him.
He came to her, rested his hands on her shoulders and gave a light squeeze. “Hey, what’s this? Why are you all tense after a massage? What’s wrong?”
He’d given her the opening she needed to ask her burning question, but now that the moment was upon her, she couldn’t get the words past the huge lump in her throat. What they had now was more than she’d ever had with anyone—even the man she’d planned to marry, until he called off their wedding. It was enough, wasn’t it?
“Piper. You’re scaring me. Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she said, forcing a smile. “I’m good. What do you want for dinner?”
He shook his head. “Nah, let’s not do that. I could tell the second I came through the door that something was off. How am I supposed to think about dinner when I can tell you’ve got something weighing on you?”
Of course he knew. He was intuitive that way. That was one of the things she loved about him. Who was she kidding? She loved everything about him, and that was what had her tied up in knots as she tried to find a way to ask him the one thing she most needed to know.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked as he sat next to her on the bed and put his arm around her. “Whatever it is, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s troubling you.”
Who was this perfect man who’d been sent from heaven to say and do all the right things? Most of the time, anyway… He was coming along with not leaving his clothes on the floor and the seat up on the toilet, but who cared about stuff like that when he got so much right?
“I… I’ve been thinking about life outside this room where we’ve spent so much time.”
“I need to take you out more often. I was thinking that same thing.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Don’t tell me you want out, Pipes. I’m not sure I could handle that.”
She loved how he’d given her a nickname that no one else had ever used for her. “I don’t want out. I want in. All the way in.”
“What do you mean?”
“That night when I went after you when you were upset… You said you wanted everything with me. I want that with you, too. Every day, I get deeper into this thing with you, and I have this knot of fear.” She put her hand on her belly. “Right here.”
“What’re you afraid of?”
“I don’t know exactly, but it’s got me wondering what you and I look like outside this bubble we’ve been living in for months now.”
“Hmm, well, let me set your mind at ease. I want to be wherever you are for the rest of my life. I don’t care where we are or what we’re doing, as long as you’re there, I have what I need.”
“Jack...”
“I love you, Piper. I love everything about you and us and how you’ve made me feel hopeful and optimistic again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed those things until you brought them back to my life.”
“I love you, too. Everything about you.”
He grinned. “Except the clothes on the floor and the toilet-seat problem, right?”
“No one is perfect.”
“You are.”
She shook her head.
“No, you really are. You took on me and my grief and made space for Ruby… Do you have any idea how special that makes you?”
“I… um…”
“It makes you very special. Not everyone could successfully navigate the minefield that comes with dating a widower, and you managed it just right. I’ll never have the words to thank you for that. Whatever you’re worried about or fearing, don’t. You and me are forever, if that’s what you want, too.”
