Page 23 of Hold My Heart

Chapter 6

He’d hit the lottery.

It was the only thought in his head and he played it on repeat, savoring Olympia the way she deserved to be savored. Ortryingto savor her, once the raging inferno of need driving him took a backseat to logic.

He broke off the kiss at the sound of his mother telling his sisters to keep the baby from watching. Wait... What was he doing?

His lips felt bruised as he stared down at Olympia, noting her dark eyes, the color on her cheeks.

“We’re continuing this later,” he said, low enough for her ears only.

Half of him expected her to chew him a new one right then and there. He was surprised when she nodded. “Okay.”

Okay?Okay!

Clearing his throat, he turned back to his family and played it off as nothing. “Mom’s meatloaf gets to me every time!”

Gil and Brett whooped their response and Harlan strove for normalcy when his insides were buzzing, alight. Olympia hardly looked at him for the rest of the evening. Through dessert, through a glass of cider, and through packing a sleeping Renee in the back of his car.

“They really liked you,” he told her softly after they’d spent the first half of the drive back to her house in silence.

“I’m glad. They’re a lot to take in...” Olympia trailed off. “I did my best. I really did.”

“But?” he pressed.

“But they’re...a pleasure. I mean it. I’ve never imagined a family could be like them.”

“I think the word you’re looking for iscrazy.” It was said with mirth and affection.

She rewarded him with a smile. “Yes. Crazy and too much and over the top. Yet just enough, I think.”

“You will get used to them eventually. And you know you can’t take anything Aunt Philly says seriously. She loves getting in other people’s business. It’s one of her favorite hobbies.” He took the liberty of reaching across the space, taking her hand in his. “I had fun. Thank you for coming.”

There was a moment of hesitation on her part. A hitch. Then she took his hand, turning her palm up to his. “You’re welcome.”

The heat of her threatened to scorch him, and Harlan couldn’t help himself. Hewanted. He wanted her more than he wanted to live to see the next sunrise. More than he wanted his next meal. It was saying something because as an optimist by nature, he lived for the excitement of a new day.

No other woman had captured his attention as she did. It wasn’t the way she bossed him around, and it wasn’t how she pushed him away that made him want to get closer. It was the little things. The subtleties of her. How she finger-combed her hair behind her ears when she was thinking. How she bit the inside of her lip when she was working through a problem. There was a wealth of love inside of her waiting for the right person to claim it. Not love for the baby, because he knew she had that in spades. Romantic love. Sexual love.

What would he give to be the man who unlocked her heart?

When they arrived home, he unhooked Renee from the car seat and followed Olympia up to the front door with the sleeping baby in his arms. It was too much for his heart, the picture they made. The way his lady smiled when she opened the door, trying not to make any sound, and the comforting weight of Renee in his arms. This was it, his subconscious whispered. This was the woman he’d been waiting for. The child he’d been waiting for. Thelife.

The amusement he felt over the thought he kept to himself. Olympia would flip her lid if she heard him saying anything of the sort. She already found his flirtation frustrating at times, unwelcome at others, and entirely inappropriate most days. Or so she had told him repeatedly. Then again, she’d let him kiss her...so maybe there wasn’t as much hesitation as he thought.

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