Page 62 of Stuck With the Billionaire Grump

How is it possible for one person to change so dramatically in such a short amount of time? Does it really come down to the simple, corny answer that love makes all things possible?

My entire life, I never believed that true love was real. It’s just a chemical reaction, just a mixture of hormones, I’d tell myself. It’s just physical attraction and lust and biological impulses all mixed into one. Love was not some indomitable force that could overcome all odds; it was a gimmick tossed into books and movies to make people feel less miserable about their dull lives.

I had been one of those miserable people. But now, I know that love is real. I feel it. I might not be able to exactly describe it, but I know that it’s love I feel when my chest squeezes with affection at the way Lucy’s nose scrunches when she smiles. I know it’s love when all I want to do is listen to her voice or kiss her until we’re both breathless or turn the world inside out if only to amuse her.

I know it’s love because when I think of my future, she is there in every single scene. She’s there, driving up to Boston on the weekends to see me or meeting me at the door when I driveto Mermaid Shores to see her. She’s there when I picture us reaching the stage where we move in together and bicker about paint colors and fight for our fair share of the duvet each night. She’s there when I imagine what sort of engagement ring I’d pick out for her. She’s there, walking down the aisle toward me at our quaint backyard wedding, or the massive, absurdly expensive wedding, or maybe even the frivolous destination wedding in a tropical location. Whatever she wants, really.

She’s there in my future as the mother of my kids. We laugh at our wrinkles together and tease each other for the grays that start growing on our heads.

When I picture my future, it is Lucy. Always Lucy.

Except, right now, I’m starting to think that I’ve gotten way ahead of myself. I’ve dived in headfirst way before Lucy is ready to consider that our little game is anything more than a fun back-and-forth. I’ve jumped the gun. I’ve ruined it all.

She still has her arms draped around my shoulders and she’s staring very intently at my face, so that’s promising. At least she’s not screaming and running away.

“You’re in love with me?” Lucy breathes.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way,” I tell her. Even as I say it, though, my hands tighten on her hips as if that will prevent her from drifting away from me when all is said and done. “I mean that. I didn’t say it just now because I was expecting to get the same response from you. I just really wanted to tell you how I feel. Because you deserve to know. And because I’m happy about it. Loving you makes me really happy, Lucy.”

Her dark, almost-black eyes are shimmering with tears.

The worst has happened. I’ve made her cry. She’s so upset by this rapid development in our relationship that she’s going to start crying.

Maybe I should’ve waited. Maybe she drove all this way to tell me that she’s actually not sure she wants to fall in love with meanymore, and I’ve gone and made it awkward by blurting out my feelings at the first possible opportunity.

“Theo,” she whispers.

And then she kisses me.

Sweet and slow like a summer sunrise, Lucy tells me all the things she can’t figure out how to say with her kisses alone. I lose myself in her for long minutes, which could easily turn into hours or days or months or years for all I care. When I am with her, I don’t care about trivial things like the passage of time. Yes, technically speaking, we do have a dinner reservation to get to tonight, but if all Lucy wants to do is kiss me until the moon rises, I’m perfectly okay with that.

When she breaks the kiss, she stays close, her lips hovering a hairsbreadth away from mine.

“I love you, Theo.”

At first, I’m not sure I hear her properly. Her voice is so soft, almost shy.

“What was that?” I reply.

“I’m in love with you.”

“You don’t have to be.”

“I want to be.”

“You’re not just saying it?”

Lucy kisses me again. Fiercely, like she’s annoyed that I’d even suggest she’d fib about something like this.No, you idiot, she seems to say.I mean it with my whole heart.

I pull her closer and answer with a kiss of my own.I’ve never been happier.

More minutes pass. Centuries. Eons.

When we finally pull ourselves apart, Lucy is smiling. “I think I like being in love. It feels kind of ridiculous, but in a nice way. It makes me want to climb on your rooftop and shout to the entire neighborhood that I’m in love. I want to tell strangers about it.I want to walk around Boston and say, ‘Hey, everyone. This is Theo Danvers, and I’m in love with him.’”

I burst out laughing. I knew she wouldn’t be speechless for long.

“As sweet as that is, I’m not sure the people of Boston will care all that much.”

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