When she burst into the room, her son stood—tall, blond, handsome and concerned. “Mom? What is it? What’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?”

Carolina, who’d put her son at the center of her life for more than thirty years, looked past him now to the man behind the desk whose small smile told her he knew exactly why she’d come. “I’m fine, honey,” she said haltingly. “I…I need to see Seamus, if that’s all right.” She tore her gaze off Seamus and looked up at Joe. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”

Joe looked at her quizzically. “It’s no problem. We were done. Call me later?”

Nodding absently, Carolina returned her focus to Seamus, who waited patiently, as if he had all the time in the world to hear whatever she’d come to say.

Kissing her on the cheek, Joe stepped around her and left the office, closing the door behind him.

“You’re giving your poor son fits, love.”

That lovely Irish brogue made her heart sing with joy. “I know. I’m a terrible mother.”

Laughing, Seamus came around the desk to embrace her, encouraging her to rest her head on his shoulder. “You’re one of the best mums I know.”

Carolina expelled a great sigh of relief when she realized he wasn’t going to send her away. He wasn’t going to tell her that she’d finally succeeded in changing his mind about her. Rather, he ran a soothing hand up and down her back.

“How’re the hives?”

“Itchy, but the oatmeal helped.”

“I’m a first-class arse for leaving you when you were feeling poorly.”

She looked up at him, her determination fueled by the beauty of his face, the lyrical lilt of his brogue and the love he’d shown her from the start. “And I’m a first-class fool for letting you think I give a rat’s arse about what anyone thinks of us.” His eyes widened at her unusually forceful statement. “I don’t care, Seamus. I don’t care anymore about anything other than being with you. If people don’t get it, I don’t care.”

She had barely finished the statement when he was kissing her madly, deeply, holding her so tightly she could barely breathe.

“Ah, love, Joe’s not the only one you’ve given the fits to,” he whispered against her lips before he went back for more.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, clinging to him. “I never meant to make you wonder if I felt the same way you do.”

“I never wondered about that, love. Not for one second. I worried that you weren’t going to give yourself permission to take what you want, but I never wondered if you loved me as much as I love you.”

“I do. I love you just as much.”