It's A Wonderful Midlife Crisis (Good To The Last Death #1) - Robyn Peterman Page 0,103

with words. It was fabulous that he sucked at painting.

Neither one of us had said the L word to each other. The thought of it unnerved me. What I’d thought was love between a man and a woman had not even been remotely right. I loved Steve, but as a friend—a best friend. The reality that I hadn’t been able to figure that out until now made me mistrust my judgment about the entire concept.

“Daisy,” Jennifer called out. “Can you come look at this? I think I mucked up the plumbing under the sink.”

“Why are you doing plumbing work?” I yelled back, horrified. Jennifer was a disaster with anything that had a moving part. She’d single-handedly blown up three copy machines.

“The plumber didn’t show up and I wanted to surprise Heather.”

“Heather will certainly be surprised,” I muttered as I stood up and grabbed a belt with tools on it.

“It’s a damned good thing we’re in public,” Gideon said, wincing and rearranging his junk in his jeans. “I’d bang the hell out of you with that tool belt on.”

“Oh my God,” I said with a laugh. “You’re insane.”

“No. I’m in love,” he replied. “With you.”

The tool belt fell to the floor and my rear end joined it. Speech eluded me, but over the ringing in my ears, I was fairly sure I heard Gideon tell Jennifer I would be there shortly. He gathered me up in his strong arms and joined me on the floor.

“Wasn’t exactly the reaction I was hoping for,” he said.

“I…”

“You do not have to say it back, Daisy. That’s not why I told you,” he said slowly, as if each word that came out of his mouth was as much of a surprise to him as it was to me. “I’m not even sure what the word means, but I’ve never felt like this in the entire time I’ve existed. It has to be love. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

“Try,” I whispered. “Try to explain it.”

Gideon was quiet for a long moment as he buried his nose in my hair. “I suppose it’s more of a feeling of excitement and peace. I’d given up so long ago that anyone would ever see me—the real me.”

I stayed silent and waited. My heart beat so loudly in my chest that I was sure he could hear it.

“When I saw you, I felt things… emotions… very unwelcome,” he went on. “I blew it off as lust. Lust would pass. I refused to act on base human needs. Plus, we would be interacting with each other and I didn’t need to complicate things. But then you screwed everything up.”

“How?”

I could literally feel his smile even though I was staring at my knees.

“You were you, Daisy,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. Your smile. Your compassion. The loyalty to your friends. I was jealous of your damn Hell Hound when I first saw you holding her. It was ludicrous. I had no clue what to make of it.”

Again, I waited for more.

“So, I decided to get to know you… feeling certain after I knew you, the ridiculous things I was experiencing would go away.”

“And they didn’t?” I asked.

“Can’t you tell?” he inquired, pulling me closer. “All of a sudden I’m alive after being invisible for millions of years.”

The millions-of-years part was a little shocking since we’d never talked age in numbers, but everything else was damn near perfect.

“Can I admit something?” I asked, raising my eyes to his, feeling sexy and beautiful despite the paint all over me and my ten-year-old overalls.

“Yes.”

“I thought I knew what love was when I married Steve. And I did love him, but it was safe and secure… and it was a lie. I wouldn’t change my time with Steve even if I could. I’m who I am now because of what my life has been,” I said, feeling sort of like I was having an out-of-body experience. Who was this woman speaking?

It was me, and I liked her—was proud of her… was rooting for her to win. “I have no definition of love between a man and a woman, but if it means that thoughts of you and your well-being consume me, every time I see you it feels like Christmas and the thought of spending every minute for the rest of time is love then…” I paused and gathered my jumbled thoughts. I realized I was no longer scared. “This all feels so fast and I’m nuts, but I’ve never been so