"I want you to move back to Phoenix with us, Della. We have an extra bedroom over the bonus room. It would give you privacy and you would have a separate entrance into the house. You could go to school out there and we could all get to know each other better. The girls love you. Jillian thinks you're great. We all want you to come live with us, though I know you have a life here."
"Della!" Woods's voice broke into Nile's surprising offer and I stopped and turned around to see Woods running toward me. What was he doing here?
"Well, I'll be damned," Nile said beside me with an amused tone. I didn't have time to focus on him and his offer. Woods looked upset.
"Woods?" I searched his face to see if there was something wrong. Was someone hurt?
"Don't leave me," he said, grabbing my arms and taking a deep breath like he had been running for a few miles.
"What are you talking about? I'm not leaving you."
He looked over at Nile, then back at me with determination in his eyes. "I love you. You're my one. My all-in. Don't leave me."
Had Nile told him he was going to ask me to leave with him? If he had, then why would Woods even think I would go? Had I made him feel that insecure about us? Of course I had. I had run off and left him with nothing but a letter. I reached up and grabbed Woods's face and looked into his eyes. I needed him to hear me.
"I'm not leaving you. Ever. You'll have to send me packing to get me to leave, and then I plan on fighting back. I will handcuff myself to you and refuse to budge. Nothing will make me leave. Nothing." I brushed my thumbs over his cheekbones; it was really unfair how they were so perfect.
"He's going to ask you to go to Phoenix," he said, watching my face.
"I know. He just did. Doesn't mean I'm going," I told him, and smiled up at his beautiful, troubled face.
"So, you're not leaving me?" he asked.
I shook my head and dropped my hands from his face and turned to look at Nile. "The fact that you and Jillian and the girls would be willing to accept me into your family so easily is humbling. I am touched. I want to get to know you and them. But I won't be leaving Rosemary. I won't be leaving Woods. He's my family. The people here are my family. I don't need another one. I have what I need here."
Nile didn't look hurt or ready to argue. Instead, I could see a pleased expression light up his face. "As much as I wanted you to come live with me and give us a chance to become a family, I'm thankful that you have someone who loves you like that," he said, nodding his head at Woods. "I can trust him to take care of you and know you're okay. I didn't take care of you when you needed it. Now that I've found you, I want you to be happy and safe. I believe this man can give you that."
Woods pulled me against him.
"He can. He does that and so much more," I replied.
Woods
It was time for the end-of-summer beach bonfire. The past two months had been perfect. Della was sharing more and more of her past with me and her dreams were starting to completely go away. She'd woken me up in the middle of the night the week before last to tell me she'd had a dream about us. That we'd been having sex on the kitchen table. She'd been so excited to have a dream that didn't contain the horrors of her past that she'd been ready to play it out in real life.
It was a pretty damn good way to wake up.
I watched as she held Nate and danced around with him as the music pumped through the speakers. Blaire was in Rush's lap and they were watching Della with their son. She was beautiful. I wanted to see her dance around and laugh with our baby. I wanted her to have a child to love the way she was never loved. I wanted to know we had created something from the love that bound us so tightly together.
"She's happy," Jace said.
"She's perfect," I replied.
Jace laughed and slapped me on the back. "Just go ahead and do it. You know you want to. Put that little ring on her finger."
"I'm planning it. Has to be special."
Jace sighed. "Yeah, I'm planning it, too. Bethy and I've had a hard summer but things are looking better. She's stopped running off to bars. I think she just had a dark time there for a while. She's been spending time with Blaire and Della again. That helps."
Jace hadn't shown up on my doorstep upset about Bethy in two months. I was hoping things were better. "Good. Glad you two are working it out."
"Oh, shit. Is that Nan?" Jace said, pointing her out to me. "I thought she left and went to Paris for the summer. Seeing Nan is gonna send Grant into a tailspin again." Grant wasn't at the party; he was out of town. That was happening a lot lately. He would show up for a couple of days then leave again. I was just glad he wasn't wasting time with Nan.
"Grant has moved on. If Nan's back, then he'll be fine. She was a bad mistake. He knows that now."
Jace let out a low whistle. "She's with August Schweep. What, did she bring him back from Paris with her?"
"No. August is our new golf pro. We needed more than just Marco. When August hurt his rotator cuff his pro career was over. He wants to retire here, so he bought the Spencer house. He's working for me now."