She touched the center of my chin, petting my winter-thick beard. “I’d love to go get your daughter.”
I caught her finger. “She’s ours, you know. She looks at you and only sees the woman who loves her.”
Her lashes fluttered down. “I do love her, but I’m not her mother.”
“You could be.” It felt like I’d said all this a thousand times.
She swallowed hard. “Brooks…”
“No, hear me out. We’re so good together. You could move in here. We could be a family.”
Her eyes widened. “Jared.”
“Aren’t we good together? You see that, right?”
“Everything is going so fast.”
“Is it though? We’ve been close for years. This just makes it better. And we make a good team. Maybe we could even have another baby.” I cupped her cheek. “Your beautiful eyes and my height.” I brushed my nose against hers. “Shortie.”
Her lips parted and tears welled up in her eyes. “Just like that?”
“It’s the next logical step.”
“Logical.” She stiffened in my arms.
“Yes. Logical—there’s nothing wrong with that. We are compatible in so many ways. This is the perfect way to move forward.”
Her brows knitted together. “You’re moving really fast.”
“Not fast enough as far as I’m concerned.” I thumbed away her tears. I couldn’t tell if they were the overwhelmed or painful kind. “Bee…”
She stepped back and tucked the end of the towel around her breasts. “What if I’m not what you need—not really? This is just easy right now. You’re confused.”
I fisted my hands at my sides. “It’s easy because it’s right. And I know what I want.”
“What you want.”
“You don’t want us?” My chest tightened.
She wouldn’t look me in the eye.
“Bee?”
“I—I do.”
I blew out a breath. “You scared me for a minute.”
“Why do we have to rush into anything? Aren’t we okay like this for now?”
I tucked my fists under my arms. No. I wanted to make sure she was mine. That this thing between us was solid. “Why settle for half when we can have it all?”
“You’re pushing.”
“I’m not.” I blew out a breath. “Okay, I’m pushing a little. But we check every box.”
“Box? Wow.” She released a sharp laugh, then turned on her heel and gave me her back. “Maybe some of us aren’t checkboxes.”
I moved to follow her out and nearly slipped on the puddle around me. I swore and snatched a towel off the rack. “Dammit, Bee. I don’t mean it like that. I just mean we’re so solid and perfect for each other.”