Page 56 of Single Dad Christmas

With a groan, she practically ran to the front door, and, holding it so she was completely obstructed from view, opened it inwards. He stepped inside and she pushed it shut, wishing she’d had a few more minutes to tidy herself up, because he was looking at her in a way that showed he missed nothing.

“Louisa,” he said her name with a possessive heat, but then his voice softened. “How are you?”

She opened her mouth to respond that she was ‘fine’, only the word wouldn’t come out.Miserable,would be more accurate. She nodded in lieu of either.

“What’s happened?” she asked. “Why are you here?”

He jammed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I needed to see you.”

“Why?” She furrowed her brow in genuine confusion.

“The engagement announcement. Are you okay?”

She stared at him, barely computing. “It’s…I’m…It’s hardly a surprise,” she pointed out. “I knew it was coming.”

“Still, now everyone knows.”

“I don’t care about Ares and Sofia,” she said, then, with a grimace. “I mean, I care. I’m glad he’s happy, yada yada yada. But nothing they do can affect me.”

“Then this,” he moved towards her, swiping his thumb over her cheek, which was wet with tears. “is for me?”

She glanced down at the floor between them, not bothering to deny it.

“Louisa,” he groaned. “I came here the other day because I was so sick of making mistakes, and I just wanted to do the right thing, only, fool that I apparently am, I ended up making the biggest mistake of my life.”

She couldn’t look at him. Her heart was stretching with a sort of impossible hope, but Louisa refused to give it room. She wouldn’t hope for what just wasn’t possible.

“I love you,” he said again, the words a quiet rumble. “And if you love me, then I don’t care what happens next, except that whatever it is, we face it together.”

She jerked her face to his, shaking her head in one motion. “But Taylor?—,”

“I’ve talked to Taylor. A lot.” He caught Louisa’s face in his hands, looking at her with so much love it took her breath away. “She’s sorry for what she did. The more we talked, the more she opened up, the more she started to seem recognizable to me. Like herself again. We can’t rush it with her, but she’s not going to stand in the way for us.”

Louisa’s heart dropped. She shook her head. “I can’t do this, though, Noah. I can’t be the reason that your relationship with her suffers.”

“You will never be that. My problems with Taylor go way back, and they’re mine to fix. I haven’t been honest with her, but all that stops now.”

“What did you tell her, about me?”

“That I love you. That I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I gave her two options. Either you and I keep doing what we were doing, spending time here in your apartment until Taylor moves away to university and doesn’t care so much what her dad does. Or she opens herself up properly to the idea of you being in our lives and starts to see that her heart has room for Amyandyou.”

Louisa felt her knees go weak.

“I’m not saying she’s going to love you, or that it’s going to happen overnight, but she spoke to my mother—who is, as you know, my stepmother—and I think it helped her understand that families can be complex but still kind of wonderful.”

Louisa closed her eyes on a wave of emotion.

“Like you and Ares. You’re great friends, and to some people that might seem strange, but I get it. You spent a lot of time together, and he’s someone you want in your life, that you care about. Family.”

“Family,” she repeated softly.

“And you’re my family. Whether Taylor accepts that or not, you’re my other half. I don’t want to run from that. I want to run towards it, and I want to fight for this.”

“Oh, Noah,” she said, shaking her head, blinking up at him through a fog of surprise and wonder. “I don’t know?—,”

“Yes, you do,” and he smiled one of those dazzling smiles that made it seem as if the world was full of glitter. “Look at me and tell me even a part of you doubts that this is the right path for us?”

She bit into her lip.

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