knew he could have just left it for her. But that would have defeated another part of his purpose. He’d needed to see her reaction to his gift so he’d have some idea of what to do next. It was so unlike him not to have a clear plan, but he felt much as he suspected he would setting sail without a compass or preparation. He wasn’t totally sure how to get where he wanted to go, or if the waters he’d face would be calm, rough or totally unpredictable.
Encouraged by the way she held his gift, he quietly said, “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” she echoed, still clutching the little ornament. Caution merged with disbelief. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in San Diego.”
“I was. I spent Christmas Eve with my family and caught the first flight out this morning. I don’t want to keep you from Tyler. I just wanted you to have that.”
Rory watched him nod toward her clutched hands. She could have hugged him for his gift. The reserve carved in his expression held her right where she stood.
Considering the bated relief she felt at his presence, her “Thank you” seemed terribly inadequate. “Do you want to come in? Tyler loves his—”
Erik was already shaking his head. “There’s one other thing.” More than one, actually, but he wanted them alone right now. “The other day, you said you didn’t want to set yourself up to lose something you don’t even have. You said it would be a mistake for you to count on me. I understand the need to protect yourself,” he insisted. He’d mastered that one in spades himself. “And I get the reasons you don’t want Tyler to start believing I’ll be around for him. But I’m not all those other people who’ve let you down, Rory.
“You seem so certain the only way you can create stability for yourself is to keep anyone who could rock your boat at arm’s length. But you’ve rocked mine, too. You already have me,” he admitted. “I figure the least we owe each other is a little time to reconsider our positions before we totally blow something that could have a lot of potential.”
She looked at him warily, a betraying glint of a smile in her eyes. “You think we have potential?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”
She’d rocked his boat. The thought made relief harder to suppress. His admission that she already had him made it nearly impossible.
She took a step closer. “If I let myself count on you,” she began, already wanting that more than he could possibly know, “what are you offering to reconsider?”
“Are we negotiating?”
“Apparently,” she replied, holding his gift even tighter.
She couldn’t begin to identify what she felt as the tension left his handsome features. Reprieve, for certain. But something that felt suspiciously like hope had risen right behind it. He didn’t want them to close any doors.
Lifting his hand toward her, he curved it to the side of her face.
“In that case,” he said, more relieved than he could have imagined when she tipped her cheek toward his palm, “you should know I’ve already considered how much my hang-ups were getting in the way of possibilities where we were concerned. I’ve spent years thinking I just wanted to be away from here. But once I moved past thinking about what I’d wanted and considered what I might need, I realized that what I needed was another chance with you.
“You made me realize how much I still want a family. And a home here. It’s not just the place,” he assured her. It was how she made it feel. Comfortable. Familiar. As if he belonged there. “It’s you. And Tyler.”
He knew he already had a good life. Until he’d met her, he’d just refused to let it matter that he didn’t have anyone to share it with. He’d work or play late so that he was too tired to care that he had no one to come home to who actually cared that he’d had a great day or a bad one, or whom he could care about in return.
“We’re good together. If we want to make this work between us, we can. I’m in love with you,” he confessed, finally acknowledging what he’d denied to his partner well over a week ago. Pax had somehow known that she was the woman he’d been waiting for, though he hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for her at all. “All I’m asking is if you’re willing to try.”
Rory knew his walls had existed far longer than hers. Yet he’d just put his heart on the line for her. Her own heart feeling full enough to burst, she went up on tiptoe, curved her arms around his neck and hugged him hard.
Folding her to his chest, his hold just as tight, he chuckled against the top of her head. “That’s a yes, then?”
“Absolutely.”
“Are you okay?”
She nodded against his shoulder. “I’m falling in love with you, too, Erik. I think that’s what scared me. I knew the day we met that it could happen, but I wasn’t ready for it. It happened so fast.”
Drawing a deep breath, she lowered herself to her heels and let her hands slide to his chest. Still holding the little box, she met his eyes. “I think I panicked,” she explained.
He brushed back the hair the breeze fluttered across her cheek.
“I know you did.” She’d been no more prepared than he’d been to put a name or label on what had seemed to be growing more complicated by the moment. A little apprehension on her part hadn’t been surprising at all. He hadn’t dealt with it all that fearlessly himself. “We’ll take it slow now. Okay? No pressure. No rush. We’ll just take our time and stay open to possibilities.”
“Possibilities,” Rory repeated. “That’s what Phil told me I should look for here.” She’d only been thinking about the property, though. As Erik smiled into her eyes and drew his hand to the back of her neck, Rory remembered that the woman had also warned her to keep an open mind about him.
“She told me that, too,” he told her, and lowered his mouth to hers before she could say another word.
There was relief in his kiss as he pulled her closer, and promise, hunger, possessiveness and need. It was the need she felt most. His, definitely, but her own, too, in the long moments before he lifted his head and eased back far enough to release her hands from where they’d been trapped against his chest.
“What?” he asked, seeing the question in her flushed features.
She looked at the little gold box, lifted off its lid. Suddenly she felt certain the little life preserver didn’t represent what she’d thought.
Erik’s voice was quiet. “You said there was a time when you could always count on something like that being there for you Christmas morning.”
Her smile came easily at the reminder. “I thought this had something to do with the store. Something about keeping it afloat. But it’s a lifeline, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he murmured, touching his lips to her forehead. “I’m just not sure which one of us I thought needed rescuing.”
“Erik!”
In a flash of maroon fleece and gray denim, Tyler bolted through the door onto the porch.
“Hey,
