All the while not fully understanding why he was chasing us in the first place.
My words started to become breathy, the horror of what Dane might actually do, what he might actually want.
“I’m terrified of what’s coming. But somehow . . . that world? Right now, it feels like it’s stronger than it has ever been. Like maybe Kale is holding some pieces together I might have lost if I had to do this alone.”
“He’s good with Evan?”
“He’s amazing with him.”
She rubbed her thumbs where she was still holding me by the arms. “But you know it’s got to be more than that, Hope. This can’t just be about Evan. And I know you live for that boy, as you should, but you deserve to find happiness in the middle of that, too. Real happiness.”
I knew she was prodding. Digging deeper. Forcing me to evaluate everything. That was Jenna’s way. Goading and coaxing and shoving me toward something she might think I needed and then urging me to look at it for what it was.
Playing devil’s advocate. “It’s so much more than just that.”
I glanced at Evan before turning back to her. “Evan will always be my first priority, and I’ll never allow a man into our lives who doesn’t care about him. But this . . . what I feel?” I splayed my hands flat across my chest. “It’s overwhelming and wonderful and terrifying, and what happened between us last night? It was bigger—more powerful—than anything I could have imagined.”
Magical. A fantasy that shouldn’t have been real.
“I want to feel like this, every day, for the rest of my life. And I want to get to do it with him.”
She huffed an affectionate breath and edged back. “Oh, Harley Hope. You’re already in love with him.”
Maybe it made me a fool.
Naïve and unsuspecting.
“I don’t think I could have stopped myself from falling for that man if I’d tried.”
She quirked a playful brow. “He is delicious. Sex on a stick. Tell me we are naming a cupcake after him.”
“Watch yourself,” I tossed at her with a small laugh.
My phone chirped on the island. I went for it, unable to stop the force of my smile when I read the text.
“Look at you over there, grinning like you just swallowed a big ol’ canary,” Jenna teased. “Don’t think I need to ask you who it is. What’s he sayin’?”
“He wants Evan and I to go over to his place for pizza and a movie this evening. He said he’d pick us up since my car is still over there.”
“Oh, Harley Hope. I think that man just might be a keeper.”
“I know.”
He was so, absolutely a keeper. I could only pray he was really ready for it. For us. That he understood what being with us would be like.
Because Evan and I? I knew we were a big decision. What I knew would be a huge change to his life . . . his previous lifestyle so different than the kind of life we had to offer.
But I knew, with all of me, that Evan and I could fill his life with so much joy. The kind of joy he had evoked in me.
And my heart?
It was always hung on hope.
And all I was hoping was Kale could see it, too. That he really wanted it.
That he would take a chance on us.
23
Hope
A rim of light blazed at the edge of the horizon as the day sank away. The twinkling lights that were strung between the buildings sparked to life and spilled in through the bank of windows that overlooked Kale’s balcony and the bustling city below, casting his loft in a warm glow.
Or maybe the warm glow was actually radiating from Evan and Kale where they sat facing each other on the expansive plush rug on the floor.
We’d just finished eating pizza, our bellies satisfied and full.
I watched them from where I was curled up on the same couch, in the very spot Kale had undone me yesterday afternoon.
God, that seemed like a lifetime ago. Another world. As if a stake had been driven into time, segmenting and dividing it, giving us a new direction and a new day.
A new chance.
A chance that maybe the three of us could become one.
A rush of nerves streaked my spine. Hope and a niggle of fear. Because Kale and I were moving fast. So fast that I was still struggling to wrap my mind around the fact I’d given myself to him last night.
Fully.
Wholly.
But somehow, despite everything that was going against us, every worry and every complication, I knew this beautiful man with that huge, magnificent heart was meant for me.
Because there he sat, grinning at my son, his right hand lifted as he attempted to copy the sign language letters Evan was trying to teach him.