The Liar

“I think you can do anything. You have already. What’s going to stop you? Anyway, you’d both have space, and you could spend more time here. See how it works for you.”

“How about you, Griffin? How’s it work for you?”

“I love you. I can wait awhile. You’ve had a hell of a time, Shelby. I can wait awhile, but I want the two of you here as much as I can get. I want you to be mine. I want—”

When he cut himself off, she shook her head. “Say it. You’ve earned it.”

“I want Callie to be mine. Damn it, she deserves me. I’m good for her, and I’m going to keep being good for her. I love her, and she should be mine. That’s the second part of this, I guess, but it’s just as important as the first part, just as important as you and me.”

She sat on the window seat, took a breath.

“I’m going to be there for the two of you. That’s where I draw the line. You know what fear is—you do, because you went through it. The kind of fear where you don’t think you’ve got any blood left in your body. Where everything’s drained out of you, but fear. That’s what it was when he had you. I can be patient, Shelby, but you’re going to know what you are to me. What you and Callie are.”

“I know fear. I know fear like what you spoke of. I felt it, too, and with it a terrible, blinding rage. Both so tangled they were one thing in me. That fear and rage that if he did what he planned to do, I’d never see my baby again, or tuck her in at night, or watch her play and learn. Never dry her tears. And a fear and rage I’d never see you again, or have you hold onto me or take my hand the way you do. So many things, I can’t say all of them. It would take a lifetime.

“But I knew you’d come. And you did.”

She drew another breath. “I’ve never said I love you.”

“You’ll get around to it.”

“How about now?”

She watched the change, so subtle in his face, in his eyes. And her heart just smiled inside her.

“Now works for me.”

“I’ve never said I love you because I didn’t trust. Not you, Griffin, I came to trust you so easily, and that scared me a little so I didn’t trust me.”

Crossing her hands over her heart, she swore she could feel it swell. “It’s all been so fast, so I’d think, I can’t get carried away with all this. I can’t let myself go, just ride this wave. But I did. I am. I love you, I love who you are with me, with Callie. I love who you are. It might’ve been fear and rage that made it come so clear. But it is clear. You made Callie this room—for her. She’s already yours. So am I.”

He stepped to her, took her hands. “Was there a yes in there?”

“There was a whole bunch of them. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“I got a little lost after ‘I love you.’” He drew her in, took her under, took them both under with the light splashing and rainbows circling.

“I do love you,” she murmured. “It fills me up, lights me up. Like Callie does. I didn’t know anyone else could make me feel that way. But you do.”

Overcome, he rocked her, rocked them both. “I’m never going to stop.”

“I believe you. I believe you and I . . . we’re going to build wonderful things together. With you, I can look past today and tomorrow into weeks and months and years.”

“I’ve got to get you a ring. I should get Callie a ring.”

Her heart just melted. “You’re right. She does deserve you. I’m going to keep you filled up and lit up, too.” She eased back, framed his face. “I want more children.”

“Right now?”

“Pretty much right now. I don’t want to wait. We’re good with children, you and me, and Callie should have a big, noisy, messy family.”

He was grinning, and those clever eyes shining with it. “How big?”

“Three more, that’ll make four.”

“Four’s doable. It’s a big house.”

“I have such ideas about this house—I’ve held back.”

“Really?”

“Really. And I’m going to be ferocious on some of them.” She threw her arms around him. “I’m going to work with you on this house, on this family, on this life. And we are going to build something strong and real and beautiful together.”

“I think we’ve already started. If you’re going to have all these ideas and give me all this help when it comes to the house, you should move in pretty soon.”

“How’s tomorrow?”

She loved seeing the surprise, then the joy.

“Tomorrow’s also doable. Word of the day. ‘Doable.’ It’s all doable.”

“Why don’t we go talk to Callie about it?”

“Let’s do that. Stay for supper,” he said again as they started downstairs. “Stay the night, stay for breakfast. I know I don’t have a bed set up for her yet, but I’ll fix something up.”

“I know you will.”

They walked outside the old house they’d make theirs. Walked to where a little girl and an ungainly puppy raced around in a whirl of glistening bubbles, where the hills rose green and the clouds smoked over them in a bold blue sky. And the water bubbled musically over rocks in dappled light and shadow.

She’d found her way home, Shelby thought.

All the way home.

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