Page 110 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“Do you love him?” Skylar asked, ignoring everything I’d just told her I wanted.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

“Do you love him?” she repeated.

I shook my head back and forth. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course, it does. Do you love him?”

“Yes.” I sighed as my shoulders slumped in defeat. I was tired of arguing my case. “I do.”

I wished I didn’t. I shouldn’t. He had been very honest in telling me that he was emotionally unavailable, but I did love him. I think a part of me fell in love with him the first time I saw him at that bar.

“Ash, I saw the way he looks at you. That man loves you. I just think that maybe he doesn't know what love is.”

Why would she say that to me? Skylar had never been one to sugarcoat things. When I was five and asked if Santa was real, she told me he wasn’t. When I was twelve and went to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth pulled, the dental hygienist told me it wouldn’t hurt. Skylar told me that it would, but I would get through it. When my parents got in the car accident when I was nine, the social worker said that there was a good chance they were going to pull through. Skylar told me that they were probably going to die, but she was going to do everything she could to take care of me.

If she’d been honest about all of those things, why would she lie now?

“That’s not…he doesn’t…he’s thirty-six years old; I’m sure he knows what love is.”

“I don’t think age has anything to do with it. You said that his mom died when he was six, his dad died when he was eight, and he lived with his grandparents and was basically raised in boarding schools. As an employer, you described him as a perfectionist, a control freak, with no emotions. Didn’t you call him Robo-boss and Mr. Stick Up His Ass?”

“Yes, exactly, that’s what I’m saying.” She was proving my point. “He’s not capable of love.”

“I think he is. I think that maybe he has a hard time connecting with people. I listened to the vows he wrote, and he wants to be a good husband to you. I’ve seen the way he’s treated you. He wants to give you everything you need. I think he can love you, that hedoeslove you, if you just give him a chance andshow him what love is. If anyone can, it’s you. You are the most loving person I know, Ashley.

“I believe that you love him for who he is, not what he can give you. How many women do you think will come into his life and love him for who he is? I saw the way he looks at you. He sees you, Ash. Don’t throw that away because you’re scared.”

“You don’t know him…” I shook my head as tears started forming in my eyes. I wasn’t sure if they were tears of hope or tears of hopelessness. Either way, I didn’t want Hank or anyone else to come in and see me crying. I sniffed them back and wiped my cheek. “I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”

“Ash, I’m sorry,” Skylar called out as I turned and walked down the hallway.

I headed down the stairs and out the back of the house and across the field as fast as my legs could carry me. The entire way back to my house, my sister’s words were echoing in my head. She didn’t know what she was talking about. She’d spent a few hoursaroundDeclan, not even with him alone. She’d had one conversation with him in the kitchen, and she thought she knew him. She didn’t know him. She saw the best in people. She always had. This was my life, my heart, that was at stake. I wasn’t being scared. I was being smart.

Declan told me who he was and what he was capable of. I need more than that. That was it. I wasn’t going to compromise because it was two against one, and my hormones and heart were ganging up on my head. This had to be a logical decision.

My future, my family, and my forever were on the line.

With more determination than ever, I walked inside my front door, and the screen slammed behind me. I headed straight for the kitchen table, sat down, and signed, dated, and initialed everywhere there was a colored tab. As I did, tears fell down my face.

It was strange because I felt the moisture of the tears fall, but I wasn’t sad, so I didn’t know where the waterworks were coming from. I was signing on autopilot with no emotion. No feeling. Maybe my tear ducts hadn’t gotten the memo from my limbic system.

Once the final initial was initialed, I sat staring at the documents that would dissolve my legal ties to Declan Wolfe. As soon as these papers went through the proper channels, I would no longer be a married woman. My lip began to tremble when there was a loud knock at the door.

I closed my eyes and considered ignoring it. I didn’t want to listen to Skylar try and talk me out of signing the papers I’d just signed, but my sister was nothing if not tenacious. I knew she was not just going to go back home if I didn’t answer the door.

With a sigh, I picked up the papers, stood from the table, marched to the door, and opened it. “You’re too late. I already signed the—” my statement trailed off when I saw Declan standing on my porch. “—them,” I finished.

He looked down at the papers I was holding up in my hand and then back at me. We stared at one another for a beat before I asked, “What…what are you doing here?”

“I went to your sister’s, and she said you were here,” he explained.

“Yeah, no, I mean, what are you…why are you here?” I realized I just repeated the same question.

“What did you sign?” he asked, his tone dark and ominous.

I had a feeling he knew exactly what I had signed.

---