U.S. Male (19 page)

“How can you be so sure?” she demanded. “You say it’s all different, but how do I know that in a week or a month you’re not going to turn around and tell me you don’t want to be in a relationship, that you just want to be on your own?”

He frowned and glanced away. “The same way I know that you won’t.” He looked at her, then. “I’m willing to trust in us. I’m hoping you’ll do the same.”

“I already did that, thanks. I’m not in any hurry to go through it again.” Especially when the pain was still going on.

“Look, I was wrong.” He rose, pressing his hands on the edge of the counter. “I’ll say it again, if you want. I was wrong. I got caught up in the past but I’m telling you, it’s done. And I am going to keep telling you until you believe me. I don’t care if it takes a while. I’ve got the time and I am not going anywhere. I’ll come back here tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and every day after that for as long as it takes.” His gaze arrowed through her. “As long as it takes, Joss, and when you’re through testing me, I’ll still be here. Because I love you and that is not going to change.”

There wasn’t enough air in the room, she thought, stunned. Surely that was why her lungs wouldn’t work. Surely that was why she couldn’t speak, why her mind couldn’t assimilate it all.

A second passed, then two, and finally Bax shrugged. “Well, you’ve got to get to your class.” He winked at her with a mixture of humor and defiance. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He started to turn away, then swung back toward her. “Of course, while I’m happy to come to the store every day we could actually do something civilized like dinner. I’d join your class but as you can see, I have issues. Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

“No!” Suddenly, she found her voice. “I mean yes. I mean…hell, I don’t know. Oh God, Bax, do you mean it?”

His lips twitched. “I stand here and pour my heart out to you, with your sister no doubt listening, and you have to ask that?” He smiled. “Okay, for the record, I am crazy about you. I think about you every minute of every day. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and a couple of lifetimes after that, if we can manage it. And I would be very happy, honored, even, to stand up in front of a room full of witnesses and say it all again.”

And it was that easy, Joss thought dazedly as she came around the counter and he gathered her into his arms. His body was hard and warm and real against her, and it was then that the tears started. “I’ve missed you so much,” she murmured, blinking.

He exhaled. “It made me nuts, staying away from you, but I figured I had to or you wouldn’t believe me.” He pressed a kiss into her hair. “And then I figured the hell with waiting. I’d find some other way to convince you.”

“Have you figured that out, yet?”

“No, but I’m working on it.” And then he kissed her.