“I fell in love with you when I was ten years old and you kicked me in the balls for tugging your hair,” he says, and now it’s me who stands in the middle of the kitchen with my mouth hanging open. “I fell in love with you even more when you were pregnant. I watched you dig so deep for all the strength to continue. I watched you build a business from scratch, and I watched you become the most amazing mother and woman I’ve ever seen. I’ve done this the whole time, falling so far in love with you that there is no one else out there for me.”

“But,” I finally say, “you go on all these dates.”

“Yeah, because you go on all these dates,” he says. “So I pretend I don’t care by going on these excruciating dates.” His thumb rubs my cheek. “Dates that I always end after an hour and then come in search of you.” All of his words have shocked me; all of his words have left me without words. “Think back to all the dates I went on and how I would show up at the bar at nine. Because that is when business would die down and you could sit down with me.” He wraps one arm around my waist. “You did your own fair share of dating.”

“Well, yeah.” I look down and then look up. “But if you notice, it was always after you went on a date.”

“So you dated because I was dating?” he asks, smiling and I’m forgetting that I started this conversation with me being angry. I push away from him now, or at least I try, but he doesn’t let his hold of me go. “Not so fast,” he says. “You love me.”

I roll my eyes now. “Well, you heard me say it.” I want to put my hands on my hips.

“I want you to say it again,” he says. I look at him, and he smiles the same smile that always makes me do whatever he wants even though I don’t want to do it.

“Fine, I love you,” I say. “You big horse’s ass.”

He throws his head back, and he laughs. “Of course she can’t just say she loves me and leave it at that.”

“Whatever.” I roll my eyes and try to step out of his embrace.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he says, pulling me back to him tighter. “You aren’t running away this time.” His tone is very tight and to the point. “No, not this time, Savannah. It’s time to put the cards on the table.”

My heart speeds up, and my stomach goes to my throat. “I think we did put all the cards on the table.”