He cocked an eyebrow. “But?”

“I was wrong. You are the most amazing man I’ve ever known. You’re kind, you’re a good man, you’re everything I could want in a man but never dared believe was possible. To think of you as mine?” She smiled. “Yes, please.”

He grinned back at her. “Are you saying that you want to be mine, too?”

“Yeah, I am. I’m not sure that I understand why you want me, but I’m not going to question it – I’m going to just be grateful that you do.”

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I thought it’d take a lot longer than this to get you to see it my way.”

She shrugged. “When you called me out for being stubborn about Callie, I think you cracked something open inside me. I meant it when I said that even if I have been stubborn, I’m not stupid. Thanks to you, I see things differently now. And since I can see differently, I can do differently. My daughter tried to include me in her life for years and I wouldn’t let her because I didn’t want to screw things up for her. I cost both of us a lot of years that we could have shared.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “I don’t want to do that with you. I don’t want to take years or even months to figure it out.”

He ran his hand over her hair. “I’m glad. I want you in my life, Retta.”

She kissed him again. “I’m here, I’m already in your life, and I want you in mine.”

“Are you sure? That sounds like a commitment to me – and Trip wasn’t joking, I can be hard to shake once I make one of those.”

She nodded happily. “I don’t want to tie you down to anything too soon, but for me, I think I need to feel like it’s a commitment so that I’ll go all in.”

He handed her a glass of wine and tapped his beer bottle against it. “Here’s to us.”

Once she’d taken a sip, he set their drinks back on the nightstand and hauled her onto his lap with a big smile.

“We might not be able to go all in on making love just yet, but I love having you in my bed so that we can practice.”

She clung to his shoulders as he kissed her deeply. She loved the way he made her feel when he kissed her. He was so big, so solid. Sitting on his lap with his arms around her, she felt like she was surrounded by him – and there was no better feeling in the world.

When he finally lifted his head, his eyes twinkled as he said, “I take that back.”

“You don’t like having me in your bed?”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Nope. I love you being inourbed – and I can’t wait to have you.”

Chapter Thirteen

Travis grinned at Retta as he pulled off the highway and joined the line of cars at the coffee shack. She had her appointment with Trip this morning and he’d brought her up to town early so that they could stop here.

She grinned back at him from the passenger seat. “I know you enjoy your coffee, maybe even as much as I do, but I don’t think I’ve seen you this excited before.”

He chuckled. “I’m excited for you to try it.”

“What do you recommend?”

“Anything’s good; you can’t go wrong. But knowing your sweet tooth, you might like the white chocolate mocha.”

“Ooh, that does sound good. What are you going to get?”

“I’m hoping that they have some Kona – they don’t always have it.”

“Oh.”

“You don’t need to look so torn. You can share mine if you want to try both.”

“Aww.”

He laughed. “Aww, what?”

“Just … you. You’re so …” She tilted her head to the side as she searched for the right word.