My eyes fill with tears and I nod, my hands flexing against the skin on his chest. I move them around his back and hug myself to his body.

“Thank you for that,” I tell him.

“You don’t have to thank me, darlin’,” his voice rumbles against my ear. “I don’t want to bring this back up. It kills me, but I have to know so that I don’t fuck something up unintentionally. Is Jack on Molly’s birth certificate?”

“Uh, yeah.” I tell him, confusion with the path this conversation has turned.

“I assume that means that you two decided before she was born there would be a certain amount of care when it comes to Molly’s knowledge of how she was conceived?”

“She will never know. Never, Lee. I don’t ever want that to darken her life. Ever.”

He must have read the panic in my tone because his body moves until he’s sitting, back to the headboard, my legs spread wide framing his thighs, until he’s settled his arms back around me. His hands squeeze my hips before moving up to curl around my neck.

“She can’t know,” I gasp.

“And she won’t, Megan. You trusted me with that last night and I will never betray that. I needed to know so that I could proceed with a full deck. She was and will always be Jack’s, okay?”

I study his face. Those eyes giving me nothing but understanding and I nod.

“You’re mine now, darlin’, and with that comes Molly. It’s a package deal that I want more than you’ll ever know. This is up to you on how we play this, but she knows me. That little girl stole my heart the first time she put hot pink lipstick on me, so it isn’t going to be a hardship for me here, but I need to know how you want to introduce us to her.”

This is it. This step will be me giving myself over to him completely and with a newfound strength, I give it to him.

“She’s young, but not stupid. I’ll talk to her when I pick her up. Give her some time to hear it from me before. I saw her with you, Lee, I know this will not be news that isn’t exciting for her. But I don’t want to throw us in her face. We start with dinner. Then we take it as it comes. Together.”

“I like that, darlin’.”

His lips hit mine in a deep kiss that holds the promise of more before he pulls back.

“Thank you,” he tells me.

“For what?”

“Everything.”

Then I get his lips.

And then he gives me everything.

I LOOK OVER AT MEGAN as we drive toward her house. She called to check on Molly right before we left, letting Izzy know that she would be there to get her shortly after lunch. That gave us two hours to fill and I used every second of our time until we had to leave. After last night I’ve been worried that she would be having a hard time, but she’s shown no signs that the pain she held onto for so long is haunting her.

She’s lighter.

Her laughter coming easier and her lips have been curved up since I pulled her from the bed and into the shower.

I can tell she’s holding back a little, that fear of starting something new won’t go away overnight, but she’s ready.

And she’s finally mine.

“How do you think this is going to go?”

She turns her gaze from the window and gives me her eyes. I get a smile before turning my focus back to the road ahead of us.

“Molly?” she asks.

“Yeah, darlin’.”

That smile grows. I can’t see it fully, but even while my eyes are on the road I can hear it in her voice.

“She won’t even blink.”

I laugh, “Meaning?”

“Molly loves easy and hard. She is happy when I’m happy. She enjoys life with a full speed ahead attitude. My guess is that she’s going to be riding the high of me telling her you’re going to be around, a lot, for a long while to come.”

“She’s a great kid,” I voice honestly.

“Yeah,” she sighs.

I reach over and pull her hand over the console and hold it against my lap.

“I won’t make you regret this, giving us a chance. I promise you that I will do everything in my power to drive the three of us on this new path.”

Her hand squeezes mine.

“I know, Lee. For the first time in a really, really long time I’m excited to see what happens next.”

We continue the drive in silence as I hold her hand in my lap.

When I pull up to her house and I watch as she hesitates to leave my truck, I grin and climb out to walk over to her door. She gets down and I laugh to myself as she visibly has to force herself to leave me.