Page 71 of Owning Emma

I was thankful that he would be okay, but I hated that whatever happened affected him so much each year. I wanted to build new memories for him, with him, that would replace everything terrible that had happened in his life with everything good that was between us. But I knew I couldn’t build memories alone, and I didn’t want to force the subject.

Roman helped me finish the decorating before joining me in the kitchen to make dinner. He did that often now and I loved that even with the roughness that surrounded him, he was still so gentle with me. I made giant sandwiches from the leftover turkey that was taking over my fridge. I had thought cooking for all of Roman’s men would mean we all would fight for food or starve. So I made extras, then more extras on top of that and in the end, well . . . we might be eating turkey until the day we died.

“I think we’re almost out of turkey,” he stated as he put one of the many containers back into the fridge.

“Har har har, I never pictured you as one to make dad jokes,” I told him, knowing that my dad would have said the same thing. He came for dinner and stuck out like a sore thumb among the men. But he came, which I hoped meant he was giving these guys a shot to prove they were good. I still hadn’t told him about us, which I knew made me a coward, but the boys agreed that when the right time came, they would back me up.

I looked at Roman when he didn’t reply, a strange look plastered on his face. “Dad joke?”

“Yeah, you know a lame joke that only a dad would make,” I pointed out but the strange look never dissipated.

“Do you want kids, Emma? I mean not right now because god knows I can hardly handle my own life, but someday?” I swallowed hard like even asking the question was making him uncomfortable.

The truth was, I didn’t know. Everything inside of me screamed that this two were it, they were my future, but another part of me knew we couldn’t go on forever this way. “I never really thought about it.”

“I hadn’t either,” he confessed. “Not until your dad joke comment. But . . .” He let the word hang in the air while he worked through something silently. “But, I know I’ve never had a happier time in my life, than when the two of you are near me.”

There were no words to describe what his statement did to my insides. I felt the warmth of his words settle over me and pool in my stomach where they fluttered around stealing my breath. I couldn’t force a single word from my lips to portray how much his statement rang true, so instead, I stood on my toes and kissed him, hoping he knew I felt the same.

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