Page 91 of His Greatest Treasure

Patting his lips with his napkin, he keeps our eyes locked. “I know what I like. No use straying or trying to shake things up now. I’m content with my life now.”

“Completely? Is anyone ever really one hundred percent content?”

“Are you hinting that you’re not?”

I reach for my wine on instinct, needing something to soothe me. We’ve avoided heavy conversation so far here tonight, but we both knew it was coming. We need to dive deep before things can go any further between us.

And I really, really want them to.

“I always hoped that by the time I was in my thirties, I would be completely content. I’d have everything figured out. But a successful future seems easier to achieve the younger you are. Thirty years seems like plenty of time to get your life together the way you want it, but there are a million reasons for things to go belly up on you. If I’m being honest, I’ve never been perfectly content. And these past few years, well, I think I lost hope that I ever would be,” I admit.

“Chris plays a part in that, I assume?”

My brows jump in confirmation. “I wish I could say he hasn’t and that I haven’t allowed him to have that power over me, but yes, he does play a part in it. I’m angry with him but also with myself. Everything that happened made me resent myself and turn against my own mind. How did I allow myself to get caught up in a man who never wanted a future with me past a couple of fun years? Or why didn’t I leave him earlier? I know what a healthy relationship and marriage look like, like I’m sure you do, and while I was never married to him, I know what we had wasn’t healthy.

“My experience with him did more damage than anything elseI’ve ever gone through. But I still don’t regret it. I struggle with that.”

Oliver’s hand closes around mine on the table, a gentle comfort. It’s hard to keep eye contact as I drop my insecurities on the table for him to poke and prod at, but the thought of looking away is just as unsettling.

“How are you supposed to regret something that gave you your daughter? You can want to go back and talk some sense into yourself without regretting what you gained from that relationship,” he says gently, stroking my knuckles. “Chris hurt you. He skewed the way you see and react to care from others because he didn’t show you hardly enough. Are those things supposed to make you happy, Avery?”

I swallow. “I feel guilty when I think back and wish things had been different. That’s what eats me up inside. How is it fair to have been gifted something so precious with Nova while damning her father in my mind every day?”

“Chris might be her father, but that doesn’t grant him the right to treat you poorly. He doesn’t get immunity in my eyes. He lost you because he was a fucking idiot, and one day, he’ll think back and be the one full of regret and guilt.”

I flip my hand palm up and thread our fingers. Being the one to touch him instead of the other way around is freeing in a way. Like I’m finally allowing myself to open up to him fully.

“I’ll get to the point where I’ll look around and be content with the life I’ve built. It’s taking a little longer than I’d hoped, but I know that time is coming,” I say. “And you? What makes you content? Outside of your career, what makes youhappy, Oliver?”

He hesitates for a moment, and I wonder if I’ve overstepped for all of a second before he speaks, voice low and steady.

“If you asked me two months ago, I’d have told you I was nowhere near being content, Avery.”

“What’s changed?”

His wide shoulders stretch and straighten, tugging at the dressshirt around them. My breath gets caught in my throat when he takes our threaded hands and lifts the back of mine to his lips, ghosting a kiss across it.

“You. Nova. Both of you,” he states, not a single waver or hint of doubt in his voice. “I’ve spent my entire life around families. Around kids and love. I watched my closest friends fall in love and get married, have their own kids. I didn’t know the extent of my loneliness until you moved in next door and the two of you filled my house with the laughter I hadn’t noticed was missing and gave me a purpose for something more than just my job. Before you, I hadn’t dared think I could have a family of my own or that I was even ready for one, but now . . . Now, I want the two of you to be my family.”

“And you’re ready for that?” I choke, my heartbeat racing, loud in my ears.

His slight grin is beautiful behind our hands. “Really fucking ready, princess.”

“We’ll still have to move slow around Nova. I’ve never—she’s never been introduced to another man as someone important to us in that way. It was challenging explaining to her why Chris and I aren’t together anymore, but she’s been handling it alright . . . I think. It’s been four years now, and she’s strong. I’m just scared of overwhelming her,” I ramble, moisture building on the back of my neck. Nerves twist and turn inside of me.

His smile doesn’t fall. It grows at my word vomit, a playful gleam in his eyes. “Slow is fine. Nova’s had a lot of changes in her life. I just want you to know where I stand. I’m not going anywhere. You and Nova are what I want, and that’s not going to change, no matter how long it takes. I’m in no rush.”

His words relax me. I drop my chin, rolling my lips to hide an oncoming smile. Resting our hands back on the table, he takes another drink of his beer.

“You didn’t answer me before. What makes you happy?” I ask, pulling my hand free only so we can eat before our dinner grows cold.

The steak cuts like butter, and the first taste of it on my tongue pulls a moan from me. Oliver stiffens across the table, fork and knife unmoving in his hands. His playfulness is shoved aside by the blazing heat of desire. I rub my thighs together beneath the table.

“Those moans of yours, for one,” he mutters.

I bat his words aside. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” He resumes cutting his steak and clears his throat. “I go fishing with my brother and dad every few weekends. Sometimes we’ll rent Jet Skis and take those out too.”

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