All I Ever Need Is You (The Sullivans #14)(52)

His father nodded. “I see.” And Adam could tell that he did, even though he didn’t ask any clarifying questions about the whole not-dating-but-still-seeing-each-other thing.

“We both thought it would be easy to keep things clearly delineated. No complications, just two friends having a good time. After all, that’s what we both wanted.”

“Both of you?” His father looked more than a little doubtful. “We all love you, Adam, but you know we’re not always crazy about the way you approach women and relationships.”

“I know you’re not, but there’s never been anyone I wanted to have a real relationship with before. And Kerry, she’s been waiting her whole life for the perfect guy, for someone she can count on no matter what. I know on paper that might not look like me, but—”

“But regardless of what your dating history looks like,” his father finished for him, “if Ms. Dromoland doesn’t know that she can count on you as a friend, then she doesn’t know you very well.”

“As a friend, I’m pretty sure she does know I’ll always be there for her. But as more?” Adam walked to the doorway of his father’s wood shop to look out at the oak tree in the backyard. It was big, but not quite as big as the one he and Kerry had just picnicked beneath. “When we first set up our...our arrangement...I told her she didn’t have to worry about me falling for her. I promised her things wouldn’t get messy. I said we would keep things simple, just two friends having fun.” Adam appreciated his father holding his silence while he collected his thoughts. “But when we were over at the house today for lunch to celebrate her signing on the dotted line for it, I realized I wasn’t just happy for her because she’d found her perfect house. The real reason I’m happy is because working on the house with her means we’ll get to spend time together over the next year. A lot of time.” His father joined Adam in the doorway as Adam laid it all on the line. “Before Kerry, I’d find any way I could to avoid entangling things with a woman. But now I’m going out of my way to find ways to tangle things up.”

Now that Adam had started talking about Kerry, he couldn’t stop, couldn’t find a way to stuff it all back in. “Seeing her is the best part of any day, the best thing that happens all week. I think about her all the time. I have to stop myself from showing up at her office and dragging her out to the park or for a sail or just to hang out doing nothing. Kerry shouldn’t have been different. I wasn’t expecting her to be different. Anyone but her, actually. But she is.” By the time he finally finished talking, Adam realized Max was grinning at him.

“Look,” his father said, “I’m not going to lie and say it’s not terrifying. I’m not going to pretend it’s not confusing as hell to feel something so strong that it rocks your world off its axis. Especially when it’s something you might have thought you were never going to feel for anyone.”

“We have an arrangement,” Adam explained again. “One she’s been really wed to.” Just the way he’d been wed to it at first, too. It had seemed so perfect—getting to spend nights with a gorgeous woman who didn’t want long term any more than he wanted it. “But then, somehow, somewhere along the line, things changed. And I don’t want to stick to that arrangement anymore.”

“Your whole life, when you’ve wanted to fix things,” his father said in a serious voice, “you’ve fixed them. It’s one of the reasons you’re so good at what you do. Just as you’ve always known when something is so beautiful, so precious, that you can’t possibly walk away without regretting it.”

Max gave Adam a warm hug, one he was surprised to realize he’d really needed. Sometimes it didn’t matter that you were a grown man with a hugely successful business—you needed to be reminded that the people who loved you most were there for you.

“I’m really looking forward to meeting her,” his father said, “more than ever now. Friend or lover or girlfriend, however the two of you work things out, she’ll always be welcome.”

“You’re going to love Kerry.”

“I know we’ll love her, because you do.”

The truth of it hit Adam like a lightning bolt, and not from nearly as far out of the blue as he would have expected.

“You’re right.” He paused, reeling. “I’m in love with her.” He let the word take hold in his head first...and then deep down in his heart. Right where Kerry had already gone. “Love.” Amazingly, it didn’t sound, or feel, as strange as he’d thought it would falling from his lips. “I love her.”

His father was clearly beyond pleased, grinning ear to ear while he toasted Adam with his beer bottle. “So, now that you’ve got one big part of the equation figured out, what are you going to do about it?”

Maybe someone else would have given Adam more time to get used to the idea of having done the impossible: actually falling in love. But the Sullivans weren’t like other people, and when love struck, they didn’t waste any time before they did whatever it took to make sure it lasted.

And hell, since he’d already gone and done what should have been impossible, how much bigger a leap was it to jump headfirst into crazy, too?

Adam grinned back, the answer as obvious now as his love for her. “I’m going to tell her.”