Page 48 of Healed
“At your home? Why?” she asked.
“Because while we won’t live with my brother and sister-in-law, I hope that one day, you and I will share a home, and I’m part of Brandt’s clan. I want to live in the area the rest of the clan lives in. I want to build you a beautiful home there that we can share and raise our kids in. I want you to be able to feel at home there.”
He watched as realization crossed her face. “You alright?” he asked, with a slight laugh.
“I… it… I didn’t…” she said starting several times to speak, but not ever finishing.
He got up and went over to her, taking her hands in his as he looked into her eyes. “I was going to wait a while to tell you so I didn’t overwhelm you in case you weren’t ready, but it seems the conversation has found its way to this moment… I love you, Bailey. I have for a long time. Truth be told, you’re my mate. I know that you may not still be ready, and I know that it’s possible the idea of being in love with another shifter puts you off the whole thing, but this isn’t just a relationship to me. You’re it. I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to want me the way I want you. But you should know, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to see someone else and suddenly gravitate toward them, because for me, you’re that person.”
Her eyes had begun to mist over as he spoke, and her fingers gripped his tighter and tighter as he continued to speak.
“How long have you known?” she asked.
“Since the first time I met you, I suspected. After the second or third time I was around you, I had no doubt.”
She shook her head disbelievingly. “And you had to stand by and watch Remi and me together.”
Shaun shrugged. “You were happy. When you love someone, you want them happy, even if the someone that makes them happy isn’t you.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more romantic thing in my life. It’s so selfless.”
“Don’t go making me out to be a knight in shining armor — I’m not that. I’m just yours, and I want whatever makes you happy. And look, I only know what you’ve told me, and what we’ve shared so far. I’m not asking for promises of forever immediately. I just want to be with you. I believe we’ll find our way. I mean, we enjoy being together. We have fun. We laugh, we smile, we calm each other, I think.”
“We do,” she agreed.
“So, just maybe keep in mind that this is not dating to me.”
She nodded, but he could sense her nervousness.
“And if you decide that this is too much, you don’t want your future tied to mine, then I’ll walk away and give you that, too. Whatever it is that you decide, is what you’ll have with me.”
She cupped his jaw as she looked at up at him, went up on her tiptoes and kissed his lips. “Thank you, for telling me what this is to you. I didn’t know that you were holding all that inside.”
He kissed her. “Now, I just need to know one more thing…”
“Okay,” she said.
“How much longer ‘til six o’clock? I wanna go dancing!” he whined.
Bailey started laughing and poked him in the ribs, making him twist away from her finger. “Eat the rest of your apple fritter and let me finish what I have to do. Then we’ll go dancing.”
He did an exaggerated performance of ‘the twist’, sending her into peals of laughter. “I know you’re just putting it off, cause you can’t handle all of this,” he said, twisting around her in a circle.
Bailey laughed so hard she coughed, nodding her head as she got control of herself. “Oh, yeah. That’s the reason,” she teased as she walked back behind the counter, pausing to look back at him before going into the kitchen.
He was chuckling as he gazed back at her.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Shaun.”
“Lucky for you, I’m not going anywhere. Unless you make me, then I’d probably hang out on your porch, begging for a head pat here and there. I’m proud, but not too proud to beg.”
She grinned at him. “I’d give you a scrap here and there.”
“How kind of you,” he said.
“You know better than that! I would never treat somebody I love that way!”
His smile dropped at the same time she heard her own words and her eyes widened in surprise. They looked at each other for a second before she canted her head slightly as she offered him a suddenly shy smile. “I guess you heard that, too.”
