His mouth tilted into a crooked smile. “Honey, I wasn’t sure at all. I was upset that you’d pushed me away. I thought you weren’t interested. It was Agnes who made me see the truth. You associate love with being hurt, and you’re afraid I’ll hurt you. You’re protecting yourself.”

Why would she deny the truth? If she was honest, maybe he’d respect her wishes and stay away, instead of making things harder. “Yes.”

“You’ve lived your life doing that, caring for yourself, protecting yourself. You learned how to heal yourself, nurture yourself, and part of the way you did that was to cut out the things that threatened you. Children. Love.”

“It worked better for me that way. But Lizzy is my family now. I had no choice about that, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way. Skylar was right that sometimes the worst things can turn out to be the best. When the time is right, I’m going to formally adopt her.”

“It never crossed my mind you’d do anything else. What would you say if I told you what I want is to spend the rest of my life trying to stop anything from hurting you and Lizzy? What would you say if I told you I want you both in my life?”

She took a few unsettled breaths, trying to listen to her head and not her heart. Trying to use reason and not emotion. “You value your independence. The ability to come and go as you please. You told me you didn’t plan on giving that up anytime soon. This relationship can’t be a revolving door, Ryan. You can’t come and go as it suits you.” Because she didn’t trust emotion not to defeat reason, she pulled away from him and started to walk across the room, but he caught her arm and hauled her back to him.

“Damn it, Emily, I don’t want a revolving door. I want to walk through it and stay. I want to lock it and throw away the key. I’m telling you I want to be with you. Both of you. I’m telling you I love you.”

At first the words floated on the surface of her brain without penetrating. Then she assumed she’d misheard. “I—what?” She wondered if wishful thinking had conjured the words in her head. Had he really said that aloud?

“I love you.”

“No, you don’t. You love your freedom. You love being able to go with the wind and the tide.”

“Yes. But there comes a time when what feels right is to drop anchor and stay a while in the same place. For me, that time is now.”

She looked at him and saw her feelings mirrored in his eyes. “Ryan—”