Page 128 of Sterling Heat

We did not make love last night, too exhausted by the evening’s unfolding to do anything other than cling to each other in our sleep. I didn’t roll to my stomach. She didn’t use my body as her pillow. We cuddled face to face the entire night.

And when Adara needed her three a.m. bottle, I was there to snuggle my other girl.

All three of us fell back asleep until late morning when I made breakfast.

“I could fall in love with a man who cooks,” Enya teases from the other side of the island, reminding me of when she said something similar the first night she stayed in my apartment.

“Oh yeah? Just any man?” Wearing only boxer briefs, I lean across the island countertop and fight a glance at this fixture where I took her. We need a repeat without all the doubts and denial between us.

“Well, I have had my eye on this curmudgeon baker in town.” She winks at me, and I chuckle.

“Still don’t know what I did to have you in my life or what I can do to prove myself to you.”

“Sebastian, you don’t need to prove anything to me. You’ve already done so much. You’re kindness and—”

I snort, before groaning. “I’m nice.”

“You do realize that being kind is a gift, right? Not everyone does it so easily. Or often.”

My face heats and I lower my head.

“Just take the compliment,” she teasingly scolds, tossing a morsel of bacon at me.

I hand-block the crispy meat and meet her eyes. “Still want to prove myself to you. That I’m in this forever.”

Her brows lift, surprised at the declaration, but I mean it. I want the rest of my life to be the better half of my life. She’ll be the better half of me. The person I’ve been fighting the most in my thirty-five years is myself, and I’m ready to concede the fight.

Love wins.

“Well . . .” She pauses on my eyes before dropping her gaze to my bare chest and scanning down my middle. “The one thing you could do for me is give Adara a sibling.” Her lids lift and she sheepishly gazes at me. “Maybe a brother?”

I stare at her, without blinking, feeling my heart grow three sizes within my chest. She wants another child. With me? My chest might explode with the warm tension inside it.

My silence causes her to keep speaking. “I mean, it’s okay if you only want Adara. Or . . .”

She cuts off her speech as she watches me round the island and spin her stool, so she faces me.

I lean over her, caging her in with my arms. “You want me to give you another baby?”

“Only if—” Her words stop short as I lower to one knee and cup the backs of her calves.

“Sebastian?” My name is as thick as the pancake batter from breakfast.

“Sugar, I’ve been a man acting on instinct, reacting first and thinking second, most of my life. But there isn’t a doubt in my mind that asking you to be my wife is a flip decision. It’s the smartest thing I’ll ever do. I want a life with you. And Adara. And another baby. I want our family.” I exhale. “I’ve been denying love because I couldn’t see it in my future but then you fell into my life.”

She softly chuckles at the reminder of her fall in front of the bakery.

“But I’m the one who fell that day. I tumbled hard and fast. So fast I didn’t even see what was happening to me. Didn’t recognize it, either. I needed you to show me the possibility. And with you came Adara, giving me another gift. I want to be her dad. I want you as my wife. My love for the remainder of this life.”

I squeeze the backs of her legs. “Will you marry me? Will you allow me the honor of being Adara’s father? Will you let me stand beside you for life?”

Tears softly trickle down her face as her mouth sweetly gapes. “Would you want to adopt Adara?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t,” I tease, jostling her legs. “But only if you want me to officially be her father and I understand if you—” I’m cut off by her hands on my jaw and then her mouth on mine, kissing me sweet and long until I’m ready to tug her from the stool and lay her out on the floor. We have all the time ahead of us to work out our future.

“Yes,” she giggles at my lips. “Yes, to you. Yes, to being Adara’s dad. Yes, to being your wife. Yes, yes, yes.”

Her eager answer has me laughing. “Do you mean it?”