like home. Another confusing feeling to muddle through.
The wind gusted stronger, stirring the marsh grass into a beautiful shudder. Boats zipped a ways off from the dock, and she watched the wakes crest and crash into each other.
It was practically silent, except for the boats and bugs. Everyone had gone. She’d packed her family into their limos, watched from the dock until the landscape of New Orleans swallowed them up.
The Reynauds were gone on a day trip. Theo’s idea, actually. He’d even taken Gramps with them. All the Reynaud men, save for Jean-Pierre, on one trip in one spot. Probably something that didn’t happen too often.
Inching backward on the dock, she pulled her knees to her chest. Erika was at a complete loss of what to do.
If only it could be as simple as the word love. She loved her children. She loved their father. But she still didn’t know if he loved her back. On the one hand they hadn’t known each other long, yet she was certain of her feelings. She needed him to be just as sure.
Her head spun with it all.
And her heart twisted.
She knew what she wanted, but it didn’t make sense. She wanted to say to hell with logic and stay here with Gervais. To move in. To love him. To build their family together and pray it would all work out.
Footsteps echoed along the dock, startling her an instant before she heard Gervais’s deep voice.
“You did not leave with your family.”
Whipping her head up, she took him in. Fully. And a lump formed in the back of her throat.
“Did you think that I would do that without saying goodbye to you?” She would never have done something so cruel. Not after what she felt for him and all they’d been through together.
His chin tipped, the moonlight beaming around him. “Is this your farewell, then?”
“I am not going home with them.”
He pressed further, drawing near to her. “And to school in the UK?”
Decision upon decision. Layer upon layer. “Do you think I should?”
“I want you to stay here but I cannot make this decision for you. I don’t want to rush you.”
His answer surprised her. “I expected you to try to persuade me.”
“I’ve made my wishes clear. I want you to stay. I want us to build a life. But I can see you’re afraid. I’ll wait as long as you need.” He knelt to her level, touched her face with his steady hand.
She bristled. “I am not afraid. I am wary. There is a difference.”
“Is there?”
She churned over his words. “If you want to mince words in translation, then all right. I am afraid of making the wrong choice and having our children suffer because of it.”
“And you think we are the wrong choice?”
“I think that I love you.” There. It was out there. This was how she’d make her decision. Let him know exactly where she stood.
“I know that I love you.”
She swallowed hard and blinked back tears, barely daring to believe what she was hearing. “You do?”
“I absolutely do. No question in my mind.” His voice wrapped around her heart like a blanket, soothing and private and intimate all at once. He was...everything.
“I believe you and I want so very much to believe that will be enough.”
“Then be willing to challenge that warrior spirit of yours and fight for what we feel for each other.”
Fight? Erika had been used to fighting for the things that mattered to her. Maybe this battleground wasn’t so foreign, after all. “Fight.”
“Yes, stay here. Get to know me. Let me get to know you. And every day for the rest of our lives we’ll get to know more and more about each other. That’s how it works.”
“I will move in with you?” The idea was tantalizing this time and she wondered why she had dismissed it so readily before. Out of pride? The thought of losing herself in her family again reminded her how hard she had fought for her freedom to live her life. And truth be told, she wanted to live here, in this fascinating town with this even more fascinating man. She wanted to give her children a family life like the Reynauds.
She wanted Gervais.
Looking over his shoulder, her eyes took in the mansion.
“Yes. If that is what you wish.”
“I can go to school here?” She hadn’t even looked into programs around here, but she could. There were ways to make this work. Now that she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he loved her.
“Yes. If that is what you wish,” he said again, those final words making it clear he understood her need for control over her life.
“We bring up our children here?”
“Yes, and in your country, too, whenever possible, if you wish. And most of all I hope that you’ll do all of that as my wife.” He squeezed her hand, brought her to a standing position.
Erika looked up at him, reading his eyes. “As simple as that?”
Pulling her into him, he shook his head. “Not simple at all. But very logical.”
“Love as a logical emotion?” The idea tickled her.
“The love I feel for you defies any logic it’s so incredible. It fills every corner of me. But I do know that my plan to work harder than I’ve ever worked at anything in my life to make you happy? Yes, that will be a plan I’m not leaving to chance. I will make that a conscious choice. But if you need time to decide—”
She cupped his face in her hands. “I do not need any more time at all. Yes.”
“Yes?” Lines of excitement and relief tugged at his face.
She breathed in the scent of him, feeling balanced and renewed. Sure, for the first time in weeks, that this was where she was supposed to be.
“Yes, I love you and I will move in with you. I will go to school here. I will have our children here. And most of all, yes, I will marry you.”
He gathered her closer, a sigh of relief racking his big, strong body. “Thank God.”
“How did I ever get so lucky to meet and fall for such a wonderfully stubborn man?”
“We knew that day we met.”
“In spite of logic.”
“Instincts. With instincts like ours, we will make a winning team—” he rested his mouth on hers “—for life.”
*
