Because she was so completely disconcerted, she scrambled from his embrace with the excuse that she was starving, that he must be, too. She was dressed in her robe and out the bedroom door before he could blink, much less reach out and haul her back into bed.
Her hands shook as she made the coffee. She had just grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself when she felt Sean come up behind her, bracing his hands next to hers, trapping her in place.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Your turn. Why did you take off like that?”
“I’m hungry,” she insisted.
“Turn around, look me in the eye and tell me food is the only thing on your mind,” he said.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to turn around and level a look straight into his eyes. “I want pancakes,” she said, managing to keep her voice steady. She was impressed with her acting, if not the blatant lie.
Sean didn’t seem quite as taken with her proclamation. “Pancakes? You’d rather have pancakes than me?” he asked lightly.
She laughed despite her tension. “I didn’t know you were even on the menu.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said softly, his mouth covering hers. “Always.”
One hand cupped her breast, causing the nipple to bead beneath the soft fabric. Just like that, the panic fell away.
This was Sean. This was the solid, steady man who had befriended her son and protected her, even when she didn’t want his protection. Sean would never run out on her the way Frankie had, not after he’d committed to staying. Sean would never take such a commitment lightly. He’d lived through the pain of abandonment, just as she had. If he could take a giant leap of faith into the future, so could she.
Couldn’t she? Her heart hammered at the thought.
Then she met his gaze, saw the man who made her pulse race, the man who loved her, who loved her enough to face his own fears and move forward.
She shrugged out of the robe, let it slide to the floor as she moved into his waiting arms. Just as he swept her off her feet, she reached out and flipped off the coffeepot. Coffee, pancakes, everything else would have to wait. The future was right in front of her, and she intended to reach for it and hold on tight.
After they’d finally recovered from the most incredible, spontaneous explosion of sex Deanna had ever experienced, she met Sean’s gaze and caught the spark of amusement lurking in his eyes.
“What? I’m completely out of breath, and you’re laughing at me?”
“Not at you,” he insisted, smoothing away her frown. “It just occurred to me that we wasted an entire day painting this place.”
She looked around at the bright, cheerful walls. “How can you say that? It’s beautiful.”
“But you’re not going to be living here more than a week or two.”
She stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Isn’t it usual for a husband and wife to live under the same roof?”
She went perfectly still. “What are you saying?”
“That I want you to marry me. Today. Tomorrow. As soon as possible.”
She stared at him. “A few hours ago we were just friends, and now you want to get married right away?” She couldn’t seem to help the incredulity or the panic threading through her voice. “Isn’t that a little sudden?”
The earlier talk of babies had been one thing. That had been a sometime-in-the-future sort of discussion. This talk about a wedding had an immediacy that terrified her. Sean had kept her senses spinning all night long. Now he was making her dizzy, moving their relationship along at the speed of light.
He regarded her with understanding. “I know it’s scary,” he soothed, cupping her face in work-worn hands that were astonishingly gentle, hands that could make her tremble with the slightest caress. “But I love you. You love me. And this isn’t sudden. We’ve been getting to this point since the day we met. If you think about it that way, we’ve already been courting for months now. And we owe it to Kevin to let him know that what we feel for each other is permanent.”
“Let’s leave Kevin out of this for the moment.”
“How can we?”
“Because this is about us,” she protested weakly. “We have to do what’s right for us first, or it will be all wrong for Kevin.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “Then what are you saying?”
“That I’m still stunned about the fact that we made love.”
It was his turn to go still. “Do you regret it?”
How could she? She met his gaze. “Of course not.”
“And you do love me, right?”
She nodded.
“And Kevin thinks I’ll make an okay dad,” he said.
“That’s an understatement,” Deanna acknowledged.
“Then what’s the real problem? Are you going to love me any more if we wait six months to get married? A year?”
Deanna thought about the logic of that. He was right. Her feelings might deepen, as love tended to do with time, but they wouldn’t change. Not really. The love she’d finally admitted feeling was as real today as it would be months from now. So, why wait?
“You’re that sure?” she asked, studying his face, astonished that all of his doubts could have disappeared overnight.
He regarded her solemnly. “I’m that sure,” he confirmed.
The last of her own doubts vanished. Her heart began to sing. She glanced around at the freshly painted apartment. It was lovely, but it was hardly a reason to delay the inevitable. If there was one thing life had taught her, it was to seize happiness when it came around, for herself, for her son. Summer was almost over. A fall wedding could be beautiful.
“October?” she asked tentatively, thinking of the changing leaves that could provide a palette for the wedding.
Sean’s expression brightened.
