She just hummed under her breath. “Say it again.”
“I was scared?”
She shook her head.
“I was wrong.”
“Yes, that’s it.”
Cole reached out and touched her hair, pushing away one wayward strand. She reached up and placed two fingertips on his jaw. He was so warm and wonderfully solid.
“I haven’t been in love for a very long time and when it came at me out of nowhere, I lost it. I said it was all about babies, and to be honest that really is a scary thought for me. But that’s not why I ran. You got too close and I panicked.” He stood so close she could feel the heat rolling off his body. “I don’t want to lose you, Lauren.”
Love.
“Do you drink out of the milk carton?” she asked.
“Daily,” he admitted.
“Throw your socks on the floor?”
“I have been known to miss the hamper, on occasion.”
“Do you leave the toilet seat up?”
“Now and then.” He grimaced. “If this is a test I must be failing miserably.”
“No test,” Lauren said. “I’m just mentally revising a list.”
“A list?”
“How tall are you, exactly?”
“Six-two.”
Lauren sighed. “Might as well just shred my list, I suppose.” She lifted her arms and draped them around Cole’s neck. “Or buy a stepladder and some high-heeled shoes.” Truth be told, she hadn’t given that particular list much thought lately. There were other, more important things to consider. Like laughing, and learning to jump on a trampoline, and hugging kids who embraced with all they had…and falling in love with a man who turned her perfectly organized house into a home. “What are you doing this evening?” she asked.
Cole pulled her closer, dipped his head to place his cheek close to hers. “I don’t know, what am I doing this evening?”
“You can help me deliver what’s left of the food I prepared today to my grandmother’s retirement village.”
He grumbled. “Not exactly what I had in mind. We have the house to ourselves and you want me to go to an old folks’ home to deliver cookies?”
“Gran’s anxious to meet you.” Lauren closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She loved the way Cole smelled, loved what his closeness did to her. “And I’m anxious for you to meet her. Gran’s important to me. She’s my rock. She’s…me in fifty years, so I’m hoping you’ll like her.”
“If she’s that much like you then I’m sure I’ll love her. Maybe not as much as I love you…” He stopped, seeming to choke on the words.
It was the second time in a matter of minutes that the word love had come out of his mouth. Unplanned, spontaneous. She liked it; she liked it a lot.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Cole grinned, tipped Lauren’s head back and kissed her. Maybe they didn’t have every detail of their lives planned; maybe some of the years to come were going to be messy and difficult and chaotic. But there was one detail about which she had no doubt.
She was home.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459219410
Copyright © 2012 by Linda Winstead Jones
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