I Love How You Love Me(The Sullivans)(43)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN



They spent nearly an hour at Dylan’s parents’ house playing with Mason while he showed them the new toys Claudia had picked up for him. Max Sullivan was there, too, and though he was a man of few words, Grace could easily see how much he enjoyed her son as well.

Surprisingly, by the time they got back to her apartment, Mason was still awake. Not so surprisingly, he was in Dylan’s arms, laughing at one of his silly faces. She’d never had a first date like this one, where they almost hadn’t made it out of her apartment in the first place because they were so tempted just to jump each other instead. And she’d never spent so much time with any of her dates’ families, either. But instead of feeling like Dylan’s family were intruding on her time with him, she’d had a great time with Adam at the museum and then with Claudia and Max at their house.

“Your dad reminds me so much of mine. A man of few words, but all of them wise. Or funny,” she added with a grin. She’d felt so safe with the Sullivans. Safe and—though she’d only known them a short while—appreciated. “Do your parents know the whole story about my ex, too?”

Dylan shook his head. “Only my brothers know. I was afraid that if I told my parents—”

“They’d end up worrying too much about us,” she finished for him. “Now that I’m a parent, I get it. No matter how much you try to tell yourself that everything will be fine, you can’t stand the thought of your own child ever getting hurt in any way.”

When Mason wiggled, Dylan put him down on the floor, where he immediately crawled over to the coffee table to pull himself up.

“Look at you,” she said. “What a big boy you’re turning into.” She turned to Dylan. “Why don’t I brew us some coffee?”

But Dylan didn’t reply. Instead, he was staring at Mason in amazement.

When she turned back, she saw that her son’s little fingers were gripping the edge of the coffee table. Mason had a look of great concentration on his face, and Grace held her breath as he suddenly let go of the table and took one wobbly step and then another. Halfway into his third step, he fell with a plop onto his bottom.

He looked up at her and then Dylan as if to say, Did you see me? Did you see what I did?

She was laughing and crying at the same time as she swooped him up into her arms. “You walked!”

“You’re amazing, kid,” Dylan said, as much awe in his voice as had been in hers.

She had rained kisses over her son’s entire face by the time he wiggled back down to the floor. He pulled himself up on the side of the couch and then, with a shove, propelled himself forward again.

Without thinking, Grace reached out to hold Dylan’s hand. Or maybe he was the one who reached out for her. Either way, all that mattered was that he was here to share this milestone with her, and that he was as amazed by it as she was.

“We have to call your mom, have to take a video and email it to her so that she can see what Mason is doing!”

Dylan didn’t seem to think it was at all strange for her to think of his parents when she and Mason had only just met them the week before. Probably because he knew his mom would go crazy over this news.

He filmed first Mason alone and then both of them when Grace held out her arms and Mason walked into them. She was so happy, even though she couldn’t stop crying. But it was okay. She knew Claudia would understand, because Dylan’s mother had likely cried tears of joy at all of her children’s first steps.

Finally, Mason stayed on his bottom and started yawning and rubbing his eyes. “Looks like it’s time to finally wind down for the night.” It had been an incredible evening, and she knew she shouldn’t be disappointed that it was over. “I should get him changed and into his jammies and then read him his usual bedtime story.”

“My nieces and nephews tell me I do a pretty good job with bedtime stories,” Dylan offered.

She was sure she’d never smiled so widely before or felt so happy in all her life. “In that case, we’ll be right back.”



* * *

Dylan’s voice was so soothing as he read to Mason that Grace felt her own eyelids grow heavy. And maybe she would have fallen asleep if she hadn’t been so totally sure that tonight was the night.

From their first kiss—heck, from the first time she’d set eyes on Dylan, if she was being totally honest with herself—she’d been on the verge of giving herself to him. And every time they were together, she moved closer to that daring tumble.

But when he’d rejoiced with her over Mason taking his first steps?

No woman could have resisted a man like that.

Though Mason began to make cute little snoring sounds partway through the story, Dylan didn’t stop reading. With his attention on the book, Grace took the opportunity to feast her eyes on him, and to marvel yet again not only at how good he was with her son…but also at the precipice on which they stood tonight.


Soon the book would be put down, Mason would be in his crib, and there would only be the two of them.

Finally, Dylan shut the book and looked down at the little boy sleeping so trustingly, so peacefully, in the crook of one of his strong arms. When Grace saw the emotion in his eyes, she felt her own grow wet.

She’d tried so hard to be careful, to protect both Mason and herself from having a man drop into their lives and then drop out on a whim. But how could she ever have been prepared for a man like Dylan Sullivan? For his heart-stopping, infectious grins. For the serious way he took his boatbuilding work and his life’s passion for sailing. For his strength, both in the way he used his hands and muscles to make a huge boat take shape, and in his personal convictions. For the gentle way he held her and Mason. For the way his family had taken in her and her son without so much as a pause. And, most of all, for the way he continually made her face her fears, one after the other. She hadn’t nearly faced them all yet, but at least she’d finally stopped feeling like a shell of the old Grace Adrian.