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I stay there for another second, listening to his heartbeat and trying to get my stupid face under control before I lift my head.

I wipe beneath one eye with the heel of my palm. “Will you tell me again?”

His expression softens.

“I love you, Goldie.”

God.

I kiss him before he can see me start crying again.

“I’ve wanted to tell you that for a while.”

I pull back just enough to look at him. “You have?”

“Yeah.”

I stare at him for a second. “Then why didn’t you?”

Sumner runs his hand over my thigh. “Because for a while there, you were still waiting for me to decide I wanted out.”

I start to argue, but he’s not wrong.

“And if I’d told you I loved you before you were ready to hear it, you would’ve spent the next however long wondering if I expected you to say it back.” He looks at me. “Then every time I was tired or quiet or pissed about something else, you’d convince yourself it was because you hadn’t.”

You know what?

That’s exactly what I would’ve done, and damn him for knowing me so well.

“Okay, yeah. That’s uncomfortably accurate.”

Sumner smiles and lets his forehead rest against mine. “That’s because I know you.”

“Yeah, well, maybe know me a little less. You’re making it really hard to lie to myself.”

He laughs, and I feel it through the arm wrapped around me.

I settle my cheek against his shoulder again and run my palm over his chest. “Thank you.”

His fingers stop moving against my leg. “For what?”

“For not doing that to me. For always putting me first.”

Sumner presses a kiss into my hair. “You didn’t owe me anything. Still don’t.”

My throat starts tightening again, and I’ve officially had enough feelings for one night.

I lift my head and kiss him.

The kiss gets deeper, and I slide my hand over his shoulder as he shifts with me on the mattress, making room for my stomach instead of trying to pull me straight into him. The pregnancy pillow is still wedged between my legs, though, and after it gets in the way for the second time, I make an irritated noise against his mouth.

Sumner pulls back, breathing a little harder now. “What?”

“This thing has got to go.”

I start kicking at the bottom of the pillow until he laughs and reaches down to help me drag it out from between us.

“You begged me to buy that.”