Page 73 of Jake

“In case you got pregnant.” His shoulders fell.

She looked at him, stunned. Never having been in this position before, she didn’t know what to think. “If that’s what you want.” She didn’t really want to, but if he wanted her to, she would. There was no way she’d trap him with a child.

“It’s not about what I want. This is about you,” he told her.

“No, Jake, this is about us. If we did make a baby right now, what would you want?”

He turned to look at his hands again. “It hurts me to ask if you would want to get rid of it, but I understand if it’s not what you want right now, even if it wasn’t on purpose.”

It was time, she decided, that this man in front of her knew exactly how she felt about him. Even if he didn’t feel the same right now, she was going to get it off her chest.

“Jake,” she started and then got up to stand in front of him.

He looked up at her but didn’t speak.

“I need to tell you something. It’s okay if you don’t have anything to say to it, I need you to know that, but I need to tell you.” She crouched down until she was closer to eye level with him and took his hands in hers. “I love you. I’ve been falling in love with you. If we—” Her words were cut off with a demanding kiss.

Jake pulled her to a stand and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you too,” he whispered, her voice cracking. “I was so scared to tell you, that it might be too soon and you’d leave.”

She nodded as a tear fell. “Me too.” This amazing man loved her. She wanted to scream with sheer happiness.

“Come on.” He pulled her from the room.

“Where are we going?” she asked on a laugh.

“To watch the sunset with the woman I love in the place that I love.”

He led her to the balcony again and pulled her down into his lap. The sun had just started to go down and reflected beautiful shades of pink and purple across the water.

“It’s beautiful,” she said in awe.

“It used to be my favorite thing about being here, watching the sun slip into the ocean.”

“Used to be?” she asked.

“Now it’s this.”

He brought his lips to hers. She felt all his emotions pouring through and did her best to show her own in that kiss, needing him to understand that she loved him with her whole heart.

She pulled away and looked into his eyes. “I need you to know, that if we made a baby today, I wouldn’t want to lose it. I would never mean to trap you into something you didn’t want, but I can’t bear the thought of losing our baby.”

“I don’t want that either,” he assured her. “If we didn’t make a baby, that’s fine, but I don’t want to lose it if we did.”

His hand stroked her back as she rested her head on this shoulder again. This was happiness, the best moment of her life, sitting here being honest and open with the man that she loved.

“Lauren?” he asked.

“Hmm?”

“I want to ask you something, but you can say no,” he began. “Will you move in with me?”

“Jake.” She sighed.

“It’s okay if you aren’t ready for that, but I wanted you to know that I am.”

She took a moment to think about it, remembering how excited she was just yesterday that he was making space for her. It felt right.

“Yes.” She nodded.

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