Page 112 of The Luminosity of Loriana Harper

“And you’ll move in.” She said the words with more surety than she felt.

“If that’s what you want. This is your house, Loriana.”

She nodded. “And you’ll always feel like an interloper.”

He held her gaze. “Not if you welcome me.” He tilted his chin toward Plato. “At least I have one ally in the house.”

“I have the sewing room, which I’ve used precisely once. You could turn that into a storage room for your equipment.”

“Well…” He scratched his nose. “If I’m renting out my place, that’ll cover the mortgage. Of course I’ll help out with all expenses around here. More, because, let’s be honest, I eat a lot.”

She giggled. Likely as he expected.

“I have a storage locker to keep the excess equipment in. Maybe, eventually, I can even get a storefront.” He winced. “No, probably not. I like getting into the weeds with network issues and programming stuff. Fixing computers in a store would take me away from that.”

“You could always hire someone else to run it.”

He tapped her nose. “You’re moving way too fast.”

She snickered. “But moving in together—marriage and all—that isn’t?”

“Plus, you might want the sewing room to become a nursery.”

Well, crap. Should’ve seen this coming.“Kids?” She turned her head away and faced back toward their feet. “You want kids.” The words weighed heavy on her heart.

Mitch placed his index finger under her chin and gently guided her back so she faced him. “I don’t have a burning need for children. Hell, I’m not even sure I’d make a good parent—God knows, I didn’t have the best example.”

“I, uh, feel the same way.” She blinked. “And I suppose I could learn, but…”

“It’s okay to not want kids.”

She blinked again.

“You spend a good part of your day dealing with children. I can understand not wanting to come home and deal with your own.”

“I feel like that makes me selfish.”

“No, it makes you human. Having a child is a lifelong responsibility—not everyone is up for that challenge. And plenty of people have children who shouldn’t. Also, the earth has enough inhabitants. We don’t need to add to it.” He tapped the frown line on her forehead. “If you change your mind, we can always adopt, or foster.”

“I won’t.”

“Then you’ll enjoy the kids you see at work, and that’ll be an end to it.” He tilted his head. “And you never know, your employees might surprise you and start families of their own.”

She honestly hadn’t considered that. Carly was too young. Johanna was too flighty. Marnie was…too terrified of her own shadow.

“Speaking of Marnie.”

“We were?”

He gave herthatlook.

She grinned sheepishly.

“No more setting her up with eligible men.”

She puckered her lips.

“Loriana.” No missing the warning tone. When she didn’t respond, he prompted, “Promise me.”

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