“How much you wanna bet he was the problem, not you?” Nick waggled his eyebrows at her. “We’ve already proven he was the problem in another important area, right? You’ve never tried to have my kids. And remember what I told you—when we’re ready, we’ll have them. If we can’t have them the usual way, we’ll adopt, we’ll hire a surrogate, whatever it takes. We’ll have them.”

“I don’t know if I deserve them—or you.”

He got up and reached out a hand to her. “Sure you do.”

She took his hand and let him help her up.

Because he needed it as much as she did, he hugged her close to him.

Under his coat, her fingers clutched his back. “I love you,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”

“And I love you even more than I did earlier, if that’s possible.” With his arm around her shoulders, he led her to the stairs. “Let’s go home. I saved you a lobster.”

She glanced up at him, a hint of a smile on her face. “Thanks.”

He knew she wasn’t talking about lobster. “Any time, babe.”

Chapter 12

This was it, Freddie decided, as he let Elin drag him through her dark apartment. He wasn’t going to back out, he wasn’t going to think of his mother, his faith or the promises he made to himself years ago before he’d become a man with man-sized urges. In his right mind, he would’ve preferred some romance, some candles maybe. Love would’ve been nice, too.

But that hadn’t happened, and this was going to. And it was going to be over before it started unless he could find a way to slow things down.

He reached for her hands, which were at work on his shirt buttons. “Hey.”

She nuzzled his chest hair. “What?”

“How about we take our time?”

Rolling his nipple between her teeth, she said, “We have taken our time. We’ve been out three times, Freddie.”

“Three whole times,” he said more to himself than to her.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t you want this?”

Did he? Did he really want it this way? Then he remembered his resolution. This was the year. He had chosen this woman, knowing she would be easy and uncomplicated. It wasn’t her fault that uncomplicated had turned out to be empty and unsatisfying. “Yeah,” he said, pulling off his coat.

She took it from him and with a saucy glance over her shoulder, she said, “Get comfortable. I’ll be right back.”

Freddie sat on the bed and looked around at the surprisingly feminine room. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but pink and frilly wasn’t it. Maybe she’d surprise him in other ways, too.

“Freddie.”