Page 63 of Slow Kind of Love

Link decided to ask the only question that mattered. “Why are you here?”

If she was surprised at his bluntness, she didn’t show it, and she didn’t hesitate. “To apologize. To ask for your forgiveness. To explain.”

Link shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He hunched his shoulders. “I’m listening.”

Her big eyes looked up at him. She looked so damn small and fragile, it took everything in him not to grab her up and hold her close.

“I’m sorry for the way I left that day. I was taken by surprise, and I didn’t handle it well. “

“You’re afraid of commitment.”

“No. That’s not it.”

“You don’t love me.”

“That’s not it either.”

Confused, Link took a step back. “So commitment isn’t an issue and you love me.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it and slowly nodded. “Yes.”

“Then what?” HIs voice was louder than he’d intended, and she flinched. “I don’t understand. You put me through hell, Elise. I was ready to give you everything.”

“I know. But the thing is, I can’t give you everything.”

“You just said—”

“I can give you my heart and my soul, and you can have those until the end of time, but Link…” She leaned forward, eyes shiny with unshed tears. “I can’t give you a baby. I can’t give you a family of your own, and I thought that I was doing the right thing by letting you go. So that you could eventually find a woman who can.”

“Elise.” Link ran his hands through his hair. “Where is this coming from? We’ve never even discussed kids.”

“I heard you the day before the gala, telling that man that you wanted your own children one day.” She tried to smile. “A whole pack of them, you said.”

She was silent for a few moments. “Did you ever wonder how we could have all that sex without condoms? How pregnancy was never an issue?”

He shook his head, thinking he was an ass for not considering anything other than what to him, was the obvious. “I guess I assumed you were on the pill?”

She shook her head. “I can’t have children. After things got bad with Ben, I had a procedure, a surgery that would prevent me from having more children because I didn’t want to bring another child into that toxic environment. It was hard enough keeping Boone’s head above water.”

“Elise…”

“No, let me finish. This procedure can likely be reversed, but even if it was, I’m forty-six. The chances of me getting pregnant are very slim, and then there’s the other thing.” She exhaled. “I don’t want children. Not now. I’ve been trapped in Crystal Lake my entire life. I don’t want to be tethered to a home and a child, no matter how much I would love them. I want to travel, and I want to see all the things I’ve dreamt about, like Italy and Spain and the Winter Palace, and I want you, but I don’t know how to have you without being able to give you everything. And I don’t want you to give up a family of your own for me.”

Elise looked shattered.

Link knelt beside the bed and reached for her hands. They were cold. He stared down at them for a long time, trying to organize his thoughts from the jumbled mess in his head.

“You are my family. And if we fly solo, then that’s how we do it. Got that?”

“I’m sure you believe that, but one day, you might change your mind, and you’ll grow to resent me, or you’ll…” Her voice broke. “You’ll trade me in for someone younger.”

“Being apart from you for two weeks was hell. You’re my soulmate, Elle. The face I want to see in the morning, the body I want to sleep beside, the woman I want to share my life with. Can I ask you something?” he said roughly.

She nodded but didn’t answer.

“Do you want a husband to accompany you on your world travels, or are you happy to live in sin with a man who needs nothing more than you? You can take all the time you need—”

“I want you, Link. All of you. However I can get it.”

He kissed her then, a slow sweet kiss that soon had his body burning. He stood and began to undress. “How about a summer wedding in Italy?”

He asked the question, but didn’t wait for a reply, because he spent the next hour getting reacquainted with the woman who’d stolen his heart. She’s stomped on it a few times, but she’d given it back to him whole.

And Link Major was gonna call that one a win.

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