Well Suited (Red Lipstick Coalition #4)(86)

She met my eyes. “Of course you can, honey.”

“Theo only has one.”

A chuckle. “Well, good thing. You have so many.” She nudged me with her elbow playfully, but I was still in a blinking state of realization. “What are you gonna do?”

There was only one answer. “Tell him how much I love him,” I answered simply. “And hope he’ll take me back.”

At that, she smiled. “Oh, he will. I promise, he will.”

The door cracked open again, and this time, it was my dad’s head that popped in. We waved him in too, and he moved to stand behind my mother, his hand on her shoulder as he peered into the baby’s face.

“She looks just like you did on the day you were born, Katie-Bug. Best day of my life,” he said quietly.

Unexpected tears nipped at the corners of my eyes and the tip of my nose. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No, thank you. One of these days, we’ll be able to show you what you mean to us. Just gotta learn your language. You’d think we’d have gotten the hang of it by now,” he said on a chuckle.

“I think maybe it was me who didn’t know how to speak. But I think I might finally understand how.”

“Oh?” he asked.

I nodded. “With love.”

He smiled. “With love, Katie. Sounds like a goodbye.”

“No, it’s a hello.”

He pressed a kiss to my hair. “Come on, Sparrow. The cafeteria’s about to open, and there’s a cream cheese scone in the window I want for mine.”

Mom frowned. “Is it organic?”

“Sure,” he lied.

She sighed, smiling as she slid off my bed and into his arms. And with a wave and a quiet goodbye, they were gone.

And I held my baby, watching Theo sleep, waiting for the moment he woke so I could tell him what he meant to me.



?





Theo The hospital room was mostly dark when I woke not knowing what time it was, my neck stiff and back aching from the too-small convertible bed. Katherine smiled at me from her bed, gently bouncing the baby in her arms.

I checked my watch. Four thirty.

“When did she wake?” I asked, blinking the sleep from my eyes.

“Just a little bit ago. I changed her diaper, but I think she just wanted to be held.”

I smiled, hauling myself out of the makeshift bed to stride over to her. She shifted, making room for me to stretch out next to her. I slipped my arm around her as we looked down at our baby.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“I think I’m high on oxytocin.”

I chuckled. “It’s intense, isn’t it?”

“I can only compare it to one other thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Falling in love with you.”

Everything stilled. My heart. My lungs. Time. I looked down at her, my Kate, her face soft and open.

“I realized it yesterday,” she said quietly, “something I’d known all along. But I was caught up in the word and what I thought it meant. I never thought how I felt about you could be the thing itself, that I’d felt it all along. I think I might have loved you the first moment I met you. Is that crazy?”

“No.” A single syllable, tight with emotion.

“I’ve put you through so much, Theo. And you’ve endured it all with patience and grace and understanding. I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve you. And I understand if I’ve hurt you too bad to get you back, but—”

I stopped her—answered her—with a kiss.

I’d waited for months for that kiss.

I’d waited my whole life for that kiss.

It was laden with relief, deep with emotion, whispering promises and gratitude and absolute adoration.

When I broke the kiss, it was to look into her eyes. “Kate, I’m yours. I’ve been yours since the first. And I’ll love you until I die.”

“Good,” she said with a smile. “You’ll have to if we’re going to get married. I don’t want to end up like my mother.”

I blinked at her. “Married?” I said stupidly.

She nodded. “Married. Unless you’ve changed your mind.” She watched me for a moment. “Will you marry me, Theo? Because I don’t want anyone else but you.”

“That’s my line.”

She chuckled.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait to decide? You’re all pumped full of happy hormones right now. Are you sure you’re being rational? What happens later if you change your mind?”

“I won’t because I can’t. And love, I’ve realized, isn’t rational in any form.” She paused, searching for the words to explain. “Plato said that humans originally had four arms and four legs and were so powerful that Zeus worried for his safety. So he cleaved the humans in half, split them in two. And the only way they could be strong again was to find their other half. It was the only way they could find peace and strength—to become whole again. And love was the only thing that could bind the wound.”

She looked down at our baby for a long moment. I didn’t dare speak for fear I’d break the spell.

“I knew there was power in whatever was between us from that first night—it’s why I stayed away—but I thought that power was destructive. Depleting. I thought that power would take. But Theo, I was wrong. Your love bound the wound in my heart I hadn’t known I had. I’m sorry I didn’t know. I’m so sorry for putting you through this. I’m so sorry for resisting when all you’ve done is love me. I’ve been trying to find a way to repay you, a way to show you my love the way you show me every day, in every little thing you do. And I’ve finally found it. Let me love you forever. Marry me.”