“I don’t want to sit.”

“Kate.”

She threw up her hands, stalked over and sat. “There. Happy?”

“First, I don’t intend to marry anyone just to give Jack a mother. And I don’t intend to marry anyone who can’t be a mother to him. Now let’s put that aside and deal with you and me. I know you’re mad, but don’t cry.”

“I wouldn’t waste a single tear over you.”

He pulled out his bandanna and dropped it in her lap. “Get rid of them, okay? I’m having a hard enough time.”

She left his bandanna where it was and dashed tears away with her fingers.

“Okay, this is a box.” He pointed at the ground. “Everything we’ve just said is going into this box, and I’m closing the lid. We can open it later on, but we start fresh right here and right now.”

“As far as I’m concerned you can nail the lid on it and throw the entire thing into a pit.”

“I was going to talk to Jack tonight,” he began. “See how he felt about some changes. I figured he’d have liked the idea. I know my kid pretty well. Not as well as I assumed since he’s going around proposing to my woman behind my back.”

“Your woman?”

“Quiet,” he said mildly. “If you’d been quiet a little while longer, we’d have started out this particular area of discussion more like this.”

He moved closer, took her lifted chin in his hand. “Kate, I’m in love with you. No, you just sit there,” he told her as she started to rise. “I was trying to work out how I’d do this right before you drove up.”

“Before I…” She let out a long breath. “Oh.” As her heart began to thud she shifted her gaze to the ground. “Is the lid on that box really tight?”

“Yeah, it’s really tight.”

“Okay.” She had to close her eyes a moment, try to clear her head. But the thrill racing through her refused to let her think straight. And that, she decided, was perfect. Just perfect.

“Would you mind starting again?” she asked him. “With the I love you part?”

“Sure. I love you. I started sliding the first minute I saw you. Kept thinking I’d get my balance back, that you couldn’t be for me. Every once in a while I’d start sliding fast, I had to pull myself back. I had lots of reasons to. I can’t think of a single one of them right now, but I had them.”

“I was for you, Brody. Just like you were for me.”

“That night in your sister’s house, I couldn’t pull myself back anymore. I just dropped off the edge in love with you, I’m still staggering the next day when I see you dance. Not like I saw you that day in your school where it was pretty, and like a dream. But strong and powerful. That messed me up some again.”

He crouched down in front of her. “Kate, a few minutes ago I was standing here, putting a picture in my mind. I do that sometimes. You and me, sitting on a porch swing I still have to buy.”