Page 72 of A Man for Mia

His smile was instant. "Of course," he said, taking her hand and immediately reassuring her with his warm grip. "I was so glad I had you there today. I’m glad you were with me."

"Oh," she answered, surprised by his sudden intense mood. "Well, no problem. I was happy to help any way I could."

He nodded. "I’m glad you’ve healed so much too. Glad you feel good about your progress."

r /> She paused, realizing he was working his way up to saying something big. Tilting her head, she wondered …

"I love you, you know," he said.

He was so serious, she held her breath, thinking he was breaking up with her for some reason.

"I love you too," she answered breathlessly, bracing herself in case she needed to beg if he tried to end things between them.

"After today, I realized I don’t ever want to be without you. I want to be able to hold you every time things get bad."

Joy bloomed inside her. "I’d like that too," she admitted.

Her eyes searched his. It still felt like there was a big "but" lingering after his adamant proclamation. As he turned to open his door, she couldn’t take her eyes off the stiff set of his shoulders. Something was definitely bothering him.

She bit her lip, watching him as she followed him to his front door, replaying the last few minutes in her head. With a gasp of intuition, she realized everything had changed the moment she asked if he thought about having children.

Children.

Drew and children.

Afraid to broach the subject, afraid to learn how her own response to his answer would affect her, Mia paused inside his front door and stared around his studio. Ninety percent of the pictures he displayed centered around children.

Forgetting to breathe, Mia focused on Drew as he paused, realizing she wasn’t following him. Eyebrows wrinkling in confusion, he came back to her. "What’s wrong?"

"Do-you-want-children?" she blurted out, lumping all the words together as one instead of four so she couldn’t chicken out before asking the entire question.

Drew froze in mid-step, staring at her with big eyes, still five feet away. She wished he would move closer. She wanted to reach out and touch him, comfort herself in case things went downhill from here.

"Well?" she rasped in a suddenly hoarse voice.

His Adam’s apple worked. Then his mouth moved. Finally, the words came. "I … do you?"

After a brief shake of the head, she answered, "I asked you first."

"That’s not fair," he muttered on an irritated frown. "I just found you Mia. And I don’t want to lose you. So whatever you want to do—"

"That’s not what I asked." She winced, wishing he’d have said what was inside his heart. "I know what I want. I want to know what you want."

"I want you to be happy. And if you can’t—"

"Drew," she started. But he held up a hand.

"It doesn’t matter," he assured her. "Either way, I’ll—"

"I think it does matter very much."

Drew let out a frustrated growl. "You see, there … " He pointed his finger at her, shaking it. "I can’t answer you because it’s a trick question. If I say something that’s different than what you want and we decide to follow your decision, then you’ll worry for the rest of your life that I’m not happy … and I am. I’ve never been this happy in my life. So, either way, I don’t think I could be happier if we had a house full of twenty children."

"So you do want children?"

He blew out an agonized breath. "Mia," he said in a low, strained voice. "If you can’t … I mean, if you don’t want to after Lexie, I don’t want you to feel obligated."

"Are you worried I’d kill our baby?"

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