Page 135 of She Wolf

“We’re never breaking up,” he growls.

“Well, no but I thought if we were going to—”

“We’re not,” more growling.

“Okay, okay. I was just trying to take this at a normal pace, not romance novel pace.”

“What’s romance novel pace?”

“You know like the heroine and hero fall in love in two seconds flat.”

He pouts. “It can happen,” he says removing invisible lint from his short-covered thighs.

“And I’m not that scared girl trying to navigate motherhood with a man who lied for what I guess was the entirety of our relationship. I’m a twenty-eight-year-old woman who is so in love with the man beside her, that she would do anything to keep him. To love him. Even give up her charming little cottage.” Gosh, even I’m calling itlittlenow.

He shakes his head. “I love you too, but you can’t do it for me. It wouldn’t work that way.”

“You’re right and I think part of what you said last night made a lot of sense. I would like to live there at least until the lease runs out. I do need to do this for myself, but I also want you Gunner, all of you. Forever, and our forever starts right now, this second. Just not with us living together straight away.”

“I know,” he says quietly.

“Listen, four months or so is what’s left, right?”

He nods. He poured over the contracts with Casey when all I wanted to do was sign on the dotted line.

“So that takes us to maybe late November. Then we’ll move in here. The beginning of the season will be fine. You’ll be fresh and excited. Your road trips won’t drag because you’ll just be getting into the swing of it and then, poof, we’ll move in here and will be waiting for you to get back off every road trip you ever have.” I smile as wide as I can and give him my toothiest grin.

He releases a breath he must have been holding and then leans in to kiss me, but I pull away.

“Just a sec I need to go to the bathroom.”

When I return after brushing my teeth, he pulls me back down onto the bed and devours me in a white-hot kiss.

The kind of kiss that seals a person's fate.As if it wasn’t already.

He lifts up. “Can we go tell Jack?”

“Yeah, but what the hell am I gonna say. Will he understand why I’m now saying the opposite of what I said not twelve hours ago? He needs consistency Gunner. It’s not fair to him.”

“And from this day forward that’s all he’ll ever get. Two parents who are on the same page, on the same team, loving each other. But most importantly, loving him.”

And there you have it. The most perfect man.Mymost perfect man.

We make our way back downstairs only to find Jack chasing Biscuit around the yard in fits of laughter.

“Jack, can we talk to you a moment?” He stops dead in his tracks, looks up to the sky, takes a deep breath and then doubles back the way he came.

“Jack your mom and I have been talking—” Gunner starts.

“Wait!” He shouts and then drags Kate to stand with him, never letting go of her hand. She looks between us all, but the death grip Jack has on her hand keeps her rooted to the spot next to him.

“Okay,” I look to Gunner and then back to Jack and Kate’s joined hands.

“So like Gunner was saying. I’ve done a lot of thinking during the night. I thought about what you said, and I think you might be on to something. We do belong here with Gunner, but we also need to go back to our house for a while longer.”

He doesn’t say anything, just looks totally perplexed.

“Jack, do you understand what I’m saying? I know it’s confusing because it seems like I—”

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