Page 73 of Last Minute Fiancé

“I love you, Addison.”

She swallowed and looked up at me, the words having taken far too long to come out.

The words that meant everything.

“I should have told you long ago. That you’re everything to me. But I was so afraid that if I did, you would only think it was because of Keeley, or because we needed each other. But I want you to know that I love you and I cannot wait to raise this baby girl with you. I told you I would do anything for you, and I mean it. But the first thing I’m going to do is fight for you. There’s nothing fake about what I feel for you. There hasn’t been for a long time. I love you, Addison. I loved you before Keeley, and I’ll love you with her.”

Addison sniffed and I wiped the tears from her cheeks.

She didn’t say anything for so long, a sense of foreboding slid over me.

Was I wrong? Did she not love me back? Had I said the wrong thing?

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. How to fix this. But me hiding from what we were and what we could be didn’t make sense anymore. It hadn’t for a long time.

“I love you too. I never took off the ring, you know. Even when my fingers started to swell and then they stopped doing that whole swelling thing. Thankfully. I’m still wearing it.”

I looked down at her hand and realized she had put the ring back on, since she had taken off all her jewelry for the birth.

I looked back up at her. “It’s a damn good ring.”

“Language,” she whispered.

“I’ll do better. Promise.”

“So, let’s see, we accidentally slept together the first time, had a fake relationship the second time, you accidentally moved in the third time, and now here we are, holding a very real baby.”

“And my feelings are very real. I know neither of us are good about saying that. I’ve been so afraid of doing that, but I’m going to do better from now on. I promise. I love you both. And the entire family’s about to rush in here, and it’s going to be loud and we’re going to have to figure out how to be parents together, but we’ll do that.”

Loud and messy and real.

“I think I hear them running down the halls, so I guess these last-minute I love yous are a good thing.”

I laughed, kissing her softly.

“I was your last-minute boyfriend, your last-minute fiancé, and your last-minute roommate.”

“I don’t mind.”

The room filled and we showed off our daughter to our family, and I knew that I should have said that long ago. That holding back had been a mistake.

So I would prove to her that she was mine. That I deserved to be in her life.

I would never let Addison feel that she wasn’t good enough, that she was second choice. That she was last minute.

And Keeley would always know that she was first. That she was loved.

Because somehow, without trying, I had found my new family. My reason to be here.

And that was something I would never take for granted, even by accident.

ChapterSeventeen

Addison

Two months later

I tiptoed across the living room floor, doing my best to not make a sound. Although I could hear soft breathing over the baby monitor, Keeley did not sleep hard enough for me to be stomping around the living room and making noise.

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