Cole laughs. “What I mean is that . . . I’ve had these big moments in my life and none of the small ones.”

“And I’ve had all the small ones and none of the big ones.”

“Right. But what if some of your small ones are really the big ones? I’ve been thinking about these kinds of things lately. What if having the kid and falling in love—”

“There you go again. Off the bridge.”

He smiles. “You know what I mean.”

“I get what you mean in theory. I’ve never actually been in love.”

He sits up and drags himself to the center of the sofa. I struggle to sit upright, too, because reclining beside him feels too vulnerable.

“I think that’s the big thing for me,” I say, forgoing all jokes. “That’s my World Series, if you will. The one thing that I can do and then feel accomplished. I only want to find someone and fall spectacularly in love with them and have them actually fall just as hard for me.”

My gaze hits the sofa before the words have finished falling from my lips. My face flushes as my brain screams at me to stop talking.

Why am I saying this to him?

He reaches out and presses the tip of his finger below my chin. Gently, he lifts my head far enough for his eyes to capture mine.

The honesty, the genuineness, in his baby blues steals my breath. I wait for him to speak because there’s no way I can think my way out of this moment.

“I bet,” he says, his eyes never leaving mine, “that you’ve had a hundred guys in love with you.”

“Not true.”

My throat is hot and my voice is wrapped in cotton. I fear looking too deeply into his irises in case he can see my wounds.

I don’t want Cole Beck to see the ugly inside me—the parts that other men see and then retreat as far away from as they can. Emotionally, anyway.

But whether I want him to or not, he searches my face, and I can’t hide.

“That’s why I didn’t want Ethan here when you came over,” I say, my voice betraying me with the slightest vibration.

“Why? I don’t understand.”

Much to my dismay, Cole drops his hand.

I struggle to ignore the flash of coolness on my chin and stay focused on the question he asked of me.

“Ethan is at the age where he needs a male role model. He’s craving it. And his dad, well, you know, just took off to Cleveland without a second thought. And I don’t want Ethan latching on to anyone—because I’m afraid that’s what he would do—who isn’t into the two of us long term. And that’s clearly not what’s happening here with us.”