HARVEY HADN’T MADE it to Della in time. Just as she and her mother had walked into the room, her eyes meeting his for an electrifying beat, the celebrant had announced it was time to start. All throughout the naming day ceremony, as together they’d promised to guide and support Jack, he’d struggled to take his eyes off her. She looked beautiful, her simple blue dress matching the colour of her eyes, and her hair casually pinned up to expose her neck. It had been torture fighting the urge to drag her aside and tell her how he felt about her, but somehow he’d managed to put Brody, Amy and Jack first temporarily.
Outside in the garden at the side of the restaurant, Harvey’s cheek muscles twitched from the pressure of maintaining a semi-fake smile. But he didn’t want to ruin Jack’s photos.
‘And one last smile, please,’ the photographer said, snapping the final photo—Amy and Brody in the centre holding Jack with Harvey and Della at either end.
The minute the photographer checked the shot in the digital display, Harvey moved to intercept Della, panic like ice in his veins. But his patience had run out.
‘Della, we need to talk,’ he said as Amy and Brody wandered back inside with Jack.
‘Yes, of course, we do,’ she said, blinking up at him. ‘Harvey, I’m so sorry about last night.’ She reached for his arm. ‘I was all over the place. I’d like to blame my hormones, but I think that would be a lie.’
Harvey shook his head, cutting her off, drawing her deeper into the shade of a tree out of the sun. ‘No. I’m sorry.’ He took her hand from his arm and squeezed her fingers. ‘I was stupid, Della. I was so excited to see you after these past two weeks that I stepped in my own way, and I forgot to tell you the most important thing.’
He gripped her arms, wishing they were somewhere more romantic than a garden so he could convince her that he meant what he was about to say. But he’d just have to risk that this, here and now, would be enough. ‘I love you, Della. I fell in love with you in Fiji, and I should have told you as soon as I realised.’
She blinked, her eyes wide with confusion and doubt.
‘I was scared,’ he rushed on, his hands skimming her upper arms, because he couldn’t not touch her. ‘Scared that I’m not enough for you, because I’m a forty-two-year-old man who’s never been in love before, not like this.’ He pressed a fist to the centre of his chest, where it burned the most. ‘Scared that you deserve someone better at relationships. That if I tried to be what you need, I’d fail and let you down, and I never want to be a man who lets you down.’ He shook his head, the idea abhorrent.
‘Harvey...’ she whispered, her eyes shining with unshed tears. ‘You are enough.’
But the pressure to say what he should have said last night was overwhelming. He slid his hands down her bare arms and gripped her fingers. ‘I know I’m a big risk for you, and I know that you’re scared. I know that we wanted different things in the past, and that you’ve been hurt and let down before. I know that we can’t afford to mess this up, because we’re already a massive part of each other’s lives. But I’ve half loved you for twenty years, Della. I was just too scared to fall all the way in case I discovered that there was, in fact, something unlovable about me. Something that meant you could never choose me.’
Della shook her head, tears landing on her cheeks. ‘No, there isn’t, and I do.’
‘But I’m not scared anymore,’ he said, only half hearing her as he cupped her face and wiped a tear away with the pad of his thumb. ‘Well, that’s not strictly true. I am scared. I’m terrified. But mainly about losing you, or having to live without you. So if you’ll just give me a chance, one chance, at our relationship, I promise that I’ll try and give you everything you’ve ever wanted. I’ll try every day to be what you deserve. I’ll never stop trying to make us work, because I’ll always love you.’
Della laughed through her tears, throwing her arms around his neck. ‘Harvey, you are already everything I want. You, us, the baby.’
‘Really?’ he asked, the lump in his throat so big he thought he might choke. But he was smart enough to grip her tight in case she changed her mind.
Della nodded, standing on her toes to press her lips to his. ‘I’m sorry that I made you doubt yourself. It wasn’t that you weren’t enough. It was that I was still scared to trust my instincts and go after all of my dreams. But you showed me that I didn’t have to settle, that I can have it all, as long as I follow my heart. And my heart leads to you, Harvey. I love you, too.’
Harvey held her close, his heart thudding wildly. ‘Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,’ he choked out, overcome. He was willing to hold on to her forever in the hopes that one day she might love him in return. As long as it took.
‘I do mean it,’ she cried, cupping his face. ‘I want to move back to Melbourne and work with you, and raise our baby with you, and grow old with you, although I can’t promise that we won’t bicker from time to time.’
Harvey grinned, his heart soaring with hope. ‘What’s a little bit of harmless bickering when we’re so good together in all other areas?’ Before she could answer, he hauled her into his arms and slanted his lips over hers, kissing her with everything he was. Their tongues glided together, her fingers twisting his hair as her body shifted restlessly against his, seeking more.
Harvey pulled back, panting hard, her face gripped between his palms. ‘You really love me?’
She leaned back and looked up at him, her emotions shining in her eyes. ‘Of course I do. I almost told you last night, but then I thought you couldn’t love me, and so I left first. I sabotaged this before you could hurt me, but I’m done being scared. I’m done putting my dreams on hold. I want us to build a life together. I want it all, and I know you can be everything I need, because you already are. I choose you, Harvey.’
Dragging her close again, Harvey kissed her until his head swam from lack of oxygen. ‘Can we get out of here yet?’ he asked, drying the rest of her tears. ‘I want to take you home to bed before you fly back to New Zealand.’
Della laughed, rubbing at her smudged mascara. ‘I think my brother might never speak to us again if we did that.’
Harvey shrugged, willing to risk it if she was, but they owed it to Jack to be present, not that the cute little fella would ever remember their sacrifice.
Della sobered, searching his stare. ‘How do you feel...about the baby?’ she asked with a frown of concern. ‘I know it wasn’t planned, and you’re going from being alone to being in a relationship and being a father. That’s a lot.’
His hands held her waist, but he wanted to drop to his knees and press a kiss to her stomach, where their baby grew. ‘I feel like the luckiest man alive, Della. I love kids—tiny cute humans. I always have. They were just something else I denied myself because I was so used to holding back my emotions. But I don’t know, something happened in Fiji. I kept seeing a different side to you and then another and then another, and I found myself helpless to letting you in. I found myself telling you things I’ve never told anyone else.’
She nodded. ‘Me too.’
‘But how are you feeling? Any morning sickness? You look a little tired?’ Guilt for the way they’d left things last night crawled over his skin.
‘I’m okay. I didn’t sleep well last night,’ she said, pressing her lips to his with a breathy sigh. ‘But it’s my own fault. I met this gorgeous man in Fiji and had the best sex of my life, the best holiday fling, and then I fell in love. But when I saw him again, I bottled it, despite being crazy about him, despite choosing him of all men.’
Harvey grinned, his ego inflating. ‘The best sex, huh? Tell me more.’
Della rolled her eyes. ‘Of course that’s the thing you focus on.’
Laughing, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple as they headed back inside to the party. ‘That first day in Fiji, you said it wasn’t that great, so I’m just clarifying the details.’
Della nudged him with her elbow, tilting her face up for another kiss. ‘Don’t gloat.’
‘I’m afraid you can’t stop me.’ He paused in the doorway and cupped her face, brushing his lips over hers.
When he pulled back, she looked up at him, slipping her arm around his waist, her other hand gripping his fingers on her shoulder. ‘What will we tell them about us?’
She meant her family, the Wiltons, and Bill too, who’d been invited to join the celebration. Harvey smiled, never more certain of anything in his life than he was about Della. ‘We’ll tell them the truth. We’ll tell them I fell in love with you in Fiji.’
Della shook her head, that familiar spark of challenge he loved in her eyes. ‘No, we’ll tell them I fell in love with you.’
‘Okay, you win.’ He winked, chasing her lips with his in a final kiss before they pushed open the door to the restaurant and stepped into their future.