Page 100 of Serenity Harbor

Yes. She needed to tell him she was sorry, that she had lied, but she didn’t know where to start.

“I’ve been thinking about Gabi,” he said, his voice firm. “I’m going to help you adopt her, and I don’t want to hear any arguments.”

“Bowie,” she began, but he cut her off, his expression implacable.

“Stop being so damn stubborn and hear me out. I am going to help you adopt your daughter. No strings, no ulterior motives. I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do.”

He looked so very determined, his mouth set and his jaw firm, and she fell in love all over again.

“Hear me out. Caine Tech has an entire division in Bogotá, including an excellent legal team. Their specialty is obviously not family law, but they do have contacts in the system and can find reputable, honest people in Barranquilla who will guide you through. I already talked to Ben and Aidan earlier this evening, before Milo disappeared, and we set the wheels in motion. Someone will be there to pick you up when your flight lands and will help fast-track all the paperwork necessary. We’ve also been in touch with the US Embassy, and they’re prepared to fast-track her visa to the States and citizenship paperwork as soon as possible.”

He had done all this earlier in the evening, before Milo disappeared. While she had been sitting around moping, feeling hopeless—weak and ineffectual—he had been taking action, making calls, planning a strategy. Even after she lied so cruelly and told him she didn’t love him, he had been working to fix this for her, to help her achieve something dear to her heart.

How could she continue to doubt that he truly loved her?

“Bowie,” she began, but her voice faltered, unable to break through the logjam of emotion in her throat.

“Save your breath. There’s a little girl down there who needs a family—who needsyou—and I don’t care what it takes. We will make it happen.”

She had been so stubborn, thinking she had to learn to count on her own strength. She did. But leaning on a man—when he was therightman, when he was good and kind and decent—didn’t make her weak.

It made her smart.

He loved her. The joy of it finally washed over her, cleansing away all the stupid mistakes of her past.

Bowie Callahan loved her. She wasn’t StupidKat anymore. But if she walked away from Bowie and the beautiful future they could build together with Milo and with Gabi, she would be living up to that childhood nickname and more.

“Okay,” she finally whispered.

He stared at her. “Okay, what?”

“Okay. I want your help and...everything else.”

He said nothing, just continued to study her, a wary intensity in his eyes.

He wouldn’t make it easy for her, she suddenly realized—and he shouldn’t. He had absorbed all the risk earlier by telling her of his feelings. In return, she had shut him down cruelly. It was up to her now to shove aside her fear and her pride and offer him the only thing she could.

“I will accept your help gratefully because it’s the best thing for me and for Gabi. More important, because...I love you.”

He continued gazing down at her, completely motionless as if he hadn’t heard her, and for one fragile, tenuous moment, she wondered if she had just made a horrible mistake.

No. She wouldn’t believe that. He loved her. He said he did. Despite the hard circumstances of his childhood—or maybe because of them—Bowie Callahan was a man of honor and integrity.

He wouldn’t have said the words if he didn’t mean them wholeheartedly.

She stepped forward and touched his face, the lean, beautiful sculpted features of the man she loved so deeply.

“I am sorry I lied to you earlier. So sorry. I was a coward. I’ve messed up so many times before and was terrified I would do it again—only this time, it would matter. This time it would devastate me. I love you, Bowie. I’m so sorry I lied and hurt you. If you give me another chance, I swear I’ll find some way to make it up to you.”

Silence. Those blasted crickets.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, her heart flayed open to him and her fingertips absorbing the heat of his skin. A few seconds? A lifetime?

Just when she was beginning to think it was too late, that she had ruined any possible chance for her happy-ever-after, his mouth lifted into a sweet, beautiful smile overflowing with more tenderness and love than she could ever have imagined.

“That sounds promising,” he murmured. He shifted his mouth and brushed his lips against her fingertips where she touched his face, then reached for her.

With a sob of relief, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely.

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