Page 600 of Dark Love

What am I going to do with this man? Make him a brownie cheesecake and give him some babies. Ever since Temperance talked about Maverick having a family, that’s all I can think about. “You might not like what you’re about to hear. Can you handle it without exploding?”

He takes a long slow breath with his eyes closed, opens them to stare at me for a moment, and takes another breath. “I can.”

“Good. I don’t have time to explain. I’m five minutes late already and doctors get picky about that.”

“They’ll take us,” he mutters under his breath.

The poor doctor is in trouble.

“There’s nothing wrong with me. You don’t need to worry.”

“I’ll worry if I want to.”

Cute man. How is he going to handle it if one of our imaginary kids gets sick? This is going to be an adventure.

***

“Ms. Fleur, it’s nice to see you again.” The doctor shakes my hand, but his eyes go to Maverick.

“It’s nice to see you, too.” That isn’t actually a polite falsehood. “This is Maverick Steele. We’re together now.”

The doctor shakes Maverick’s hand with only a slight tremble, which is impressive considering the murderous glare he’s receiving.

“So, are you ready to go over the details of your breast reduction surgery and schedule the procedure. Or do you have more questions?”

Maverick’s eyes bulge out of his head. “You aren’t having your breasts cut off.”

My poor guy can’t handle life. “Yet,” I finish for him. “I’ve decided to wait until it’s medically necessary, but I’d like to make arrangements for the therapy you and my mother were talking about to help build up my muscles and avoid it for as long as possible.”

“What are you talking about, cutting off your breasts? The only reason women cut off their breasts is if they have cancer. Do you have cancer? Because, Dahl, cancer is something you should definitely have mentioned. I don’t want you going through any step of that alone.”

The doctor clears his throat. “Breast reduction surgery isn’t part of cancer treatment. Those usually involve reconstruction, not reduction. Ms. Fleur is here about a strictly cosmetic procedure. At some point, due to her body shape, it will become a medically recommended procedure, but that might be years away.”

What do I say? How do I explain all it means to be a woman with naturally large breasts? A woman who hated them so much, she planned to cut them off rather than look at them again in the mirror.

“We’ll get you set up with some physical therapy. And readdress this issue in the future.” The doctor stands up.

“Thank you,” I whisper before the doctor walks out.

“We’re talking when we get home.”

And my good day just ended. “You’re going to need s’mores.”

Maverick takes my hand in his and squeezes it. “Whatever this was all about, nothing is scarier than thinking about a moment without you.”

Will he really mean that after I come clean?

***

Maverick pulls me to the couch as soon as we step inside his place.

“Shouldn’t we go to the library? Or maybe get some blankets?”

“Talk. Because I need to know why the woman I love was contemplating cutting off her breasts.”

“Reducing them. I wasn’t cutting them off completely.” Though I have thought about it a time or two when things were really bad.

“Dahl.”

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