Jocelyn didn’t need to be taken care of. She needed to take care of people.
He was very happy to be one of those people. If she’d have him.
He kicked his shoes off inside the back door and headed into the kitchen.
He came up short at the sight that met him.
Jocelyn was at the middle kitchen island, tossing a salad, barefoot, wearing a huge smile and an apron and… nothing else.
“Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi.” Everything in him strained to go to her. But he had some things he needed to say first. “I—”
“I thought our first date should be a candlelight dinner here, in my house, that I made for you,” she said.
He glanced to his left and into the dining room. It glowed with candlelight, the flames glittering off the chandelier overhead that had probably hung there for a hundred years. He pulled in a deep breath, feeling the tension drain out of him.
“Our first date?” he asked, turning back to her.
She nodded. “We’ve had a one-night stand that wasn’t even a whole night. We’ve had a marriage. But we haven’t really had a date.”
He supposed she had a point. Their dinner in Chicago had been as a married couple as had the movies and cuddling on the couch. “Married couples can’t have dates?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Of course they can. But since we’re not married anymore, this isn’t a married-couple date.”
“We can fix that,” he said, stepping forward. “We can rip those papers up.”
She shook her head. “No, we can’t.”
“But if we don’t want to be divorced—”
“You don’t rip chapter one out of a book when you get to chapter two,” she said, picking up the salad bowl. “You just turn those pages and keep going. Those pages are as much a part of the story as the next ones.”
“But we’re going to keep going?” he asked, his chest tight.
She smiled and started for the dining room, giving him a magnificent view of her bare ass in that apron. “We’re definitely going to keep going.”
Grant felt relief spill through him, and he followed her, crowding in close as she set the salad bowl down.
He quickly took inventory of the table. Pork chops, salad, rolls, wine, and what looked like a pan of cheesy potatoes.
As soon as her hands were empty, he turned her, his hands on her upper arms. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry that I somehow made it seem like you needed me to fix things. Or if I made you feel like you were living your life the wrong way. You’re not. You’re happy and loved and… there’s nothing more important than that. I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t want to be a part of that. Because I do. So much. I just need a little practice being…” He wasn’t sure what word to insert there. He hadn’t practiced this speech. This was all just from the heart.
“Impractical?” she supplied with a grin.
“In love,” he finally said.
Her expression softened. “I can help you with that.”
“You already are.”
“For the record,” she said, resting her hands on his chest and moving closer, “I need practice at that too. I know what it looks like. I know how I want it to be. But I’ve never done it. And I realize that it’s going to look a little different for us than it does for others. I’m sorry if I made you feel like I was striving for some perfect idea in my head.” She paused and shrugged. “I probably was, actually. I never expected to fall in love with a guy who likes adding and subtracting so much.”
He grinned down at her, his heart feeling light, the happiness a nearly palpable thing. “Thank God you are romantic enough to know that love comes along in the most unexpected ways.”
“It really does.”
“And to celebrate us starting to date, we’re having whoopie pies for dessert, right?” he asked hopefully, running his hands down her back to her ass.
“Actually, no.”
He pulled back. “No?”
She pointed to the cake on the table.
It was a square cake, still in the pan, with white frosting.
“Oh. Cake,” he said. “Okay.”
She laughed. “It’s okay if you think that looks very simple and plain. Interestingly, it’s the most straightforward, simple, plain cake I think I’ve ever made.”
He lifted a brow. “Is there some symbolism there? Like our relationship is actually quite straightforward and simple when you get right down to it? We don’t need a lot of fancy embellishments? We are what