Page 76 of Miracles and Marriage
She wasn’t sure she was hearing him correctly.
“You’re offering to buy me a cottage?”
“Us.”
“Us? Cal, there is no us.”
“There could be.”
He glanced around impatiently. A group of laughing teenagers entered and the small coffeehouse suddenly seemed overrun.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Zoe grabbed her cup, glad it was the to-go kind, and almost ran to keep up with him.
Cal didn’t speak as they walked toward the Mall. Once on the great expanse, he slowed a little, turned and looked at her.
“I don’t want to end our marriage, Zoe.”
“Cal, I can’t have kids. I was fooling myself, trying one last ditch effort to have a baby. You need a wife who can give you everything you want.”
“That’s you.” He cupped her face in his palms. “I realized our last weekend together that I like spending time with you. Whether we’re looking at driftwood, planning a project orenjoying a concert. Or just lazing around watching a storm together from the porch. Or, maybe I’ve known it for longer, and didn’t admit it to myself. I thought we could keep going like we had been. I wanted you to move into my place. When I thought about it, it sounded convenient. But the truth is, I like waking up next to you. I want more of that. I enjoy watching you move around the kitchen—it’s so womanly, and I’ve not had much of that in my life. Everything about you fascinates me and enchants me. I want you in my life. And I mean to keep you right in the center.”
She started to say something, but he shook his head once.
“Let me finish or I might never get the courage to start again.”
Zoe blinked at that. This man was afraid of nothing.
“When Suzanne aborted our child, it crushed something in me. Which bloomed again when you said you’d have a baby with me. But the more I get to know you, the more I share your anguish in not having a child. That’s the difference. I share it with you. We can adopt, we can lavish attention on your nephews and nieces, or we can forge a strong life just the two of us. Whatever we want. Only, don’t shut me out. Don’t walk away.”
Zoe couldn’t believe her ears, but her eyes conveyed the truth. His honest appeal couldn’t be faked.
“Did Chloe tell you?” she asked suspiciously.
“Tell me what?”
“That I love you? That’s why I wanted to break things off. Not because I didn’t want to spend time with you, but because I thought I’d get so deep in love I’d never get out and then when we didn’t have a baby, you’d go on to another woman. That would kill me. I had to fight for myself, and end it before I couldn’t ever walk away.”
“Then you really don’t want a divorce?” he asked.
She threw herself into his arms.
“I love you, Cal. I have forever, I think. I tried so hard to resist my sexy boss, but once you said you wanted to have a baby with me, my resistance melted. I fought a good fight, but the result was a foregone conclusion. I love you. Do you really mean it that you don’t want to find a wife who can give you a dozen kids?”
“I only want you, Zoe. You have shown me how a family can be. I hope your family will let me in. But if not, you will always be enough for me. I love you, sweetheart. I want us to have fifty or sixty years together. Just don’t walk away.”
She waited a heartbeat then burst out, “Are you kidding? I love you. I don’t want to leave. And don’t worry about my family. They’ll all love you to bits. And before you know it you’ll be a favorite uncle. We have a birthday almost every other week, and holidays are chaotic with everyone at one place or another. Summers we spend lazy days at the shore with barbecues on the sand.”
Zoe clung to him, her happiness bubbling over. For a few bright moments, she forgot they’d never have a baby. That their family would forever be small, just the two of them. But with Cal it would be enough.
“We won’t have kids of our own,” she said slowly. “Cal, are you very sure? You said you were the last of your family. That will always be the situation. I’m so sorry.”
“Hush. You will be my family. If we wish, we’ll adopt. That’s really what my uncle did, took me on when he didn’t have to. We’ll fill a home with children we choose to be ours. And we’ll teach them everything about the Callahan and Blackstone families to carry on down the generations. I love you, Zoe, not some yet to be conceived child, not some fantasy future with everything ending happy. We’ll face all life’s challenges together. Right?”
She nodded, her heart brimming with love.
“The next step is to tell your parents.”
