Page 86 of The Marriage Policy

“The reasons I just said, and because I love you and—”

“Jesus, Eric. You’re killing me here. You love me. You’ve always loved me, and I’ve always loved you, but it’s different now. At least for me. Is it different for you too?”

Because of the sex? But then, I know he wouldn’t be talking about the sex. The pain, the fear in his voice, in his eyes, points to more than that. “Because I love you and…” But he’s right. Ihavealways loved him, and itisdifferent now. It’s more and perfect and everything I didn’t know I wanted or needed. It’s not something I thought myself capable of feeling before now…before him. “And…and I’minlove with you.”

I don’t just love him. I’min lovewith Donovan. Maybe that should have been obvious, and maybe I should have realized it by now. Or hell, maybe I didn’t realize it because it’s just so natural, so instinctive, that it felt the same. Have I always been in love with Donovan and just didn’t see it?

“I’m in love with you,” I say again. “I’ve maybe always been in love with you, and that’s why it could never work with anyone else. It never felt real because they weren’t you. I didn’t think I could feel this way, D. I thought this part of me was missing—wanting more, feeling romantic love—but it’s there. It’s always been there. For you.”

Donovan’s brown eyes well with tears, and his chin wobbles.

“Hey, don’t cry. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same.” It might kill me, but I love him too much not to respect him. “It doesn’t have to change anything. I just don’t want to lose you. We can—”

“I’m in love with you too. I’m so fucking in love with you, Eric. You’ve held my heart since the first moment I met you, I was just too afraid to let myself see it.”

I breathe out a sigh of relief. “I think I felt the same.”

“You’re really in love with me?” he asks, the question breaking my heart.

“I will always love you. You’re my person. Don’t you know that by now?”

He nods.

“Come here, D.”

Donovan comes easily. He sits on the side of the bed, grabbing my face and kissing me—lips, cheeks, forehead, and around my injury.

Everything settles into place, this truth that was always there making itself known to me.

Donovan and I are in love.

He’s my person in more ways than I thought.

That spark I never felt for anyone…it’s because he’s my spark.

I kiss him again and wince when pain throbs in my eye.

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

He pulls back as a deep voice clears from the entryway. “I didn’t want to interrupt,” a doctor says. “Hey, Donovan. You’re not supposed to be here when you’re off.” He shakes Donovan’s hand.

“No offense, but I wish I wasn’t. My…my husband had a little accident.”

“I didn’t know you got married. Congrats. We’ll take good care of him.” He smiles at us.

“Thank you.” Donovan pulls up a chair and sits beside my bed, holding my hand. We have a lot to talk about, but in this moment, nothing else matters but the man by my side, the one I’m totally, stupidly in love with.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Donovan

It’s late, orshould I say early, by the time we get home.

Eric’s brow is stitched up, eye swollen and purple. I haven’t been able to stop glancing his direction all night, not the whole time we were in the ER, nor as we sat in the back seat while a driver got us home.

His shirt is bloody, he looks tired, and…he’s in love with me. Eric and I arein love.

“Hey, baby. Daddies are home,” he says to Butterscotch, who’s sitting on the counter. I don’t even complain that she has a bed and cat tree yet still chooses our countertop. “I need a shower.” Eric yawns.

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