“No, babe. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at the notion that anyone knows what they’re doing when they bring a child into this world. Look at Joe since P.J. arrived. He hasn’t got the first clue of what to do with a baby, yet he’s figuring it out. And he lost his dad when he was seven. Sure, he had my dad to show him how fatherhood is done, but he probably felt no more prepared to be a father than you do to be a mother. And what about Laura? Her mother died when she was nine. No one is showing her how to do it, but would anyone deny that she’s a wonderful mother to Holden?”

“No,” Stephanie said in a small voice.

“Look at what she’s going through to bring the twins into the world. She got pregnant again knowing that pregnancy doesn’t agree with her, and she did it anyway.”

“I think that might’ve been an accident,” Stephanie said, desperately seeking some levity in the midst of her emotional firestorm.

“At their age, there’re no accidents.” He drew back from her, but only enough so he could see her face. “I believe in my heart that you would be an amazing mother. I believe that you would take one look at a child of ours and decide you’d do anything for that baby. I believe you’d give your own life to keep a child of ours safe. I believe all these things because I know you, Stephanie. I know you, the real you. I know your heart, and I know what it’s like to be loved by you. Nothing you can say would ever convince me that you won’t love our child the same way you love me—with all you’ve got to give.”

Sobs hiccupped through her as he held her close and rubbed her back. “It’s not fair.”

“What isn’t?”

“Someone ought to warn a girl that when she gets involved with a writer, she’s going to be powerless when he unleashes his words on her.”

“You’re not powerless, babe. You’ve got all the power here. You’ve ruined me for all other women, so if you don’t marry me, you’re dooming me to living like a monk for the rest of my life, a lonely, worthless shell of the guy I might’ve been with you as my wife.”

She laughed despite the tears that continued to flow freely. “See what I mean? What am I supposed to say to that?”