Waking Up Pregnant(91)

                That time was over.

                “How have you been?” It seemed trite, but Jeff hadn’t seen her in weeks. They hadn’t been talking. And he wanted to know.

                Darcy went to the sink and started filling a kettle. “We’ve been doing pretty well. Getting used to the new house. Settled in. How about you?”

                Jeff pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down at it, watching as Darcy made tea. “I’ve been lonely. Missing you. Wishing I’d done about a thousand things differently and wondering if any of them would have gotten me an outcome other than this.”

                The kettle clattered against the stove top and Darcy grabbed the counter behind her.

                Every part of Jeff wanted to go to her, usher her into a seat or, better, his lap. But he’d been taking what he wanted with Darcy from the start, pushing for his end goal without giving her the chance to decide what she wanted. He had to stop, for both of them. He wanted Darcy confident in the choices she made so they didn’t end up feeling like regrets trapping her in a place she didn’t want to be. So despite every instinct trying to drag him across the kitchen to go to her, hold her, use his body along with his words to get what he wanted...he made himself stay.

                There was only one thing he could give her right now, and that was the truth.

                “I’ve been working eighteen-hour days trying to keep myself distracted enough so I won’t start formulating my next plan to get you back, plotting what I can say to convince you to bend your rules just a little to suit my needs. I’m exhausted. I’m miserable. And I’m thinking if I want any chance at the happiness I know we can have together, I need to start figuring out how to be the man you deserve. The one you can trust and count on. Who makes you laugh. Makes you feel safe. And most of all, makes you want to stay instead of leave.”

                “Jeff, when we talked last time—” She looked at him like she was terrified, her hands gripping the countertops at either side of her like they were the only things holding her upright. “Maybe today isn’t the day to talk about this.”

                He wanted to be what she leaned on. The support she never doubted. Always.

                “Don’t worry. I’m not asking you to marry me again.”

                She nodded tightly, looking miserable and confused. And it was so damned hard not to go to her that very second.

                “I promised you I wouldn’t, and I’m going to be a man you can count on to keep his word.” He cleared his throat then and met her eyes. “But I am going to ask you what I came here to ask today. If you’d give me a chance to take you out on a date.”

                * * *

                Darcy blinked, not sure she’d heard right. “A date?” Her heart started to speed because he’d said a date and there weren’t a lot of ways to misinterpret that word. And still she was using every bit of her rapidly diminishing self-control to hold herself in check, not to sail into his arms if he meant something else.

                He was talking about missing her. About wishing things were different. But the way he’d said it didn’t sound so very different from when he’d asked her to marry him the last time when it was all about wanting to be together for the sake of their child.

                At least it hadn’t sounded different until he’d gotten to the part where he asked for a date.

                Which was...different. “A date, date? Or just a date...or maybe a date that doesn’t mean what I think it means but—”