Made For Us (28 page)

A sense of panic overcame Aidan. He knew he was taking a risk with this tonight, but he’d needed to get his head together before approaching her. Never in a million years had he imagined that Zoe would move back to Arizona. Maybe he’d rushed into this or maybe he didn’t act fast enough; all he knew was that her leaving and not being with him wasn’t an option.

“What…what about your family?”

He shook his head. “They all love you. I panicked. For so long, it’s only been us—me, my dad, my brothers, and Darcy. I didn’t know how to react when someone else was added to the equation. I was… I’m not good with change. But I’ve been spending a lot of time by myself thinking and…I can finally see that change can be a good thing.”

“I used to think so too,” she said quietly. “But all the things I tried to change didn’t work out so well.”

“I know and I’m sorry. I take the blame for a lot of that. I know I can’t change the past or the things I said, but…I want you to know that if I could, I would.”

“Aidan…”

“I’m not perfect, Zoe. There are going to be times when I mess up and I say stupid things, but…I don’t want you to go. Please. You once asked me what would happen a couple of months from now and six months from now and a year from now. I didn’t have an answer then…or at least I thought I didn’t. The truth is, the answer to all of those is that I want to be with you. Don’t leave me.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Please don’t leave me.”

“I…I…I’m already packed,” she said lamely, still trying to process his words.

“So unpack,” he countered.

“I’ve reserved the truck.”

“Cancel the reservation.”

Her mind scrambled to function, to say something he couldn’t debate or argue. “I have a job waiting for me back in Arizona,” she said, looking up at him dazedly.

“You have a job waiting for you here. Seriously, tell Martha to stop sending me incompetent people. There’s only one designer I want to work with,” he said with a sexy grin.

She couldn’t help the smile that started to spread across her face. “I’ve given my notice here with the apartment, and Lisa’s already rented it out. I’m homeless.”

“Live with me,” he said, his tone and his expression serious.

“The last time I was homeless you pretty much ran screaming from the building to make sure I understood that you weren’t going to live with me. What’s changed?”

“I’m not scared anymore. I love you.”

Zoe’s eyes went wide at his admission.

“I can’t seem to remember a time when I wasn’t in love with you.” He shook his head. “I should have said it to you sooner. Hell, I should have said and done a lot of things sooner. And that day? That day when I told you we wouldn’t be living together, I was scared, Zoe. So damn scared because my feelings for you were overwhelming. If I had been honest with myself, I would have said that I wanted to stay with you, that I didn’t want you to find another place to live because you belonged with me.”

“But—”

“I know I’m asking a lot of you. I’m asking you to forgive all of the things I said and the things I did, but if you’ll just give me a chance to make it up to you, I promise to be a better man and to put you first.”

“Wow.” She sighed as everything inside of her melted. “That’s some declaration.”

“It’s the truth.” He skimmed a hand down her cheek, in awe of how soft her skin was.

“I don’t need you to put me first, Aidan. I just need for you to not shut me out. That’s all I really wanted.” Zoe mimicked his pose and reached up to touch his face, caress his cheek and the strong line of his jaw. “And you don’t need to be a better man. I think you’re pretty amazing just as you are. Flaws and all. I don’t need perfection.” She paused. “Just promise me you’re going to listen when I talk and try to realize that you don’t have to take care of everyone. Let someone take care of you once in a while.”

“Will you stay?” He hated how needy he sounded, how shaky his voice was, but he had to know that this was leading somewhere, somewhere he had put all of his hopes into.

For a minute, Zoe pretended to think about it. “So you’re saying that I can unpack and cancel my moving truck…” Aidan nodded. “And that I have a job here and a place to live…” Again, Aidan nodded. “I don’t know… It feels like I’m missing something.” She was teasing him of course, but gasped when he dropped to one knee in front of her.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small black velvet box and opened it. “How about this?” he said softly. “This ring belonged to my mother. My father kept it and hoped someday one of his sons would give it to the woman he’s going to marry. I love you, Zoe. I love to laugh with you, I love to work with you, and I even love to fight with you. You turned my whole world upside down and helped to put things into perspective. I don’t want to live another day without you. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?”

Tears instantly sprang to Zoe’s eyes as she sank down to her knees in front of him. “Aidan,” she whispered, looking at him and then the ring. “I never thought… I didn’t believe…”

“What? That I love you?” he asked and watched as she nodded. “Sweetheart, I promise you that I will make sure you know every day for the rest of your life that I love you and that you are everything to me.” Taking her left hand in his, he held it and looked Zoe in the eyes. “Will you? Will you marry me?”

Unable to speak, Zoe nodded as tears began to freely flow. “Oh, Aidan…” She looked down at her hand. “It’s beautiful. I love it.” And then she looked up at him. “And I love you.”

He almost sagged with relief. “For a minute there I was wondering if you were ever going to say it,” he said with a lopsided grin.

“I do, Aidan. I love you.”

With that, Aidan leaned forward, closing the distance between them, lowered Zoe to the floor, and finally kissed her. Her touch was so familiar, so comforting, it was like coming home. He kissed her until he almost couldn’t breathe and even then, he only lifted his head long enough to take a breath.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Zoe said when they finally broke apart.

“I’ve missed you too. I haven’t been able to function at all without you.”

She giggled. “So I heard.”

Aidan made a face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Martha filled me in on what’s been going on at the job site.”

“You’re a tough act to follow,” he said, smiling down at her.

“Aidan?”

“Hmm?”

“I really hate to kill this romantic moment, but the floor is killing me,” she said and then broke out in laughter. “Could we maybe move this to the couch or…” She didn’t get to finish because he reached over and carefully scooped her up into his arms and walked toward her bed. “Oh, I like this plan much better.”

“Occasionally I have good ideas,” he said with a grin as he placed her down on the bed.

“Can I ask you something?” He nodded. “How did you manage to pull this off?”

For a minute, he hesitated. “I kind of had some help.”

“Oh really,” she said as she got comfortable on the bed. “From whom?”

“Pretty much everyone,” he said with a grin. “Anna helped me with the candles and the flowers, and Bobby came back here and set it all up.”

“How did he get… Wait a minute! Are you saying there wasn’t any police emergency? That he made me look like an idiot whose date left her for no reason?”

“Well…I wouldn’t say that. There was an emergency. It just wasn’t police related.”

“I really should be mad right now,” she said with a fake pout. “A man of the law breaking and entering…I mean…really.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Aidan said as he kicked off his shoes. “Don’t be mad. I wanted everything to be perfect when we got here. I wanted to surprise you.”

She couldn’t help but smile at him. “That you definitely did.” As she looked around the apartment, a sigh of contentment escaped her lips. “I love it. All of it.”

“I’m glad.”

On the bedside table was a vase filled with flowers. Zoe sat up and looked at them, reached out and touched some of the petals, and smiled—first at the arrangement and then at him. “Thank you for bringing happy flowers here tonight.” Leaning forward, she inhaled the sweet fragrance. “They may not smell as nice as the roses, but they always make me smile.”

Aidan smiled down at her and nodded. “Me too,” he said, coming down beside her on the bed. “Me too.”

Three months later

“I want you to look around this house and tell me everything you see that’s wrong.”

The words were very familiar to Zoe. “Everything?”

Aidan turned and faced her, crossing his large arms across his chest and nodding. “I want you to start at the front door and walk through the entire house and tell me what’s wrong.”

Just as she had done once before, Zoe walked to the front door of the house and stood in the entryway. “Do your landlords want you to do something with the house before they sell it?”

“What makes you think this house is for sale?” he asked from across the room.

“C’mon, Aidan, it’s completely empty. It’s like one of your model homes. It doesn’t look like anyone’s ever lived here.”

“They haven’t.”

Zoe walked over to him and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, you’re not making any sense here. Why would someone buy a house and then never live in it?”

“I’ll answer that after you do what I’ve asked you to do.”

Rolling her eyes, Zoe walked back to the front door and opened it and then closed it. “The front door needs to be replaced. The property is beautiful and you’d want a door that allows you to look outside. This builder’s-grade door is a boring stock item. It shouldn’t even be here.”

Aidan smiled as he watched her walk into the main living area and Zoe returned it. “And the white walls? Really? I would think on a custom house like this, color should have been discussed and put up on the walls as soon as the primer was dry.”

“What colors would you pick?”

Zoe walked around the room; there were so many windows and the stone fireplace was to die for, she thought, touching all of the walls and trim. “The floors are even more beautiful than the ones in the first model home we did,” she said absently as she crouched down to touch them. “The finish is darker, but they are just magnificent.”

Standing, she looked around the room and started picturing it finished. “Write this down,” she said and started calling out a list of all of the things she pictured for the room. It was coming to her faster than Aidan could type it into the tablet and she knew it and yet couldn’t seem to stop herself. The vision was so clear and she could picture how it would look that it was almost overwhelming. “Are we staging it for sale? Is that what’s going on?”

Aidan held up a hand to signify that he needed a minute to finish putting his notes in. When he looked up at her, he asked, “What about the walls? The trim? The doorways? Is everything level? Is everything plumb?”

Zoe carefully circled around and nodded. “I believe it is. Whoever the finishers were on this house, they did a fantastic job. You should use them on some of the homes you’re doing now.”

With a serene smile, he took her by the hand and led her up the stairs to the master bedroom. There were blinds on the windows and a king-size bed in the middle. Zoe turned and looked at him quizzically. “I thought you said no one’s lived here.”

“No one has.” He nodded toward her feet. “Take off your shoes and feel this carpet. What do you think of it?”

It was an odd question, she thought, but did as he asked. “Oh…my…God…” she groaned. “This has got to be the cushiest carpet I’ve ever walked on. Wow.” She curled her toes into it and purred with delight. “We have got to find out where they got this carpet because I am definitely going to want to install this in our place.”

Leaning against one wall, Aidan said, “Okay, what about in here. Tell me what’s wrong with this room.”

“This carpet makes up for everything,” she said but still walked around and looked and touched. “The white walls, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he agreed.

“It’s a great size, the windows are fabulous, and although I’m not a huge fan of blinds, these are high quality and I believe we can work with them.” With a half turn, she continued. “The bed is a good size for this room, and I think something with a massive headboard would look amazing. Normally a room this size could pull off a four-poster bed, but I’d rather feature the tray ceiling than the bed.” And a minute later, a design came to mind and she had Aidan take notes again.

Five minutes later, she collapsed on the bed and looked over at Aidan and smiled. “Sometimes creativity can be exhausting.” Aidan went and stretched out beside her and kissed her. “Easy there,” she said against his lips. “No fooling around in a client’s home.”

“It’s okay. I know the owners,” he replied and reached for the top button of her blouse.

She swatted his hand away with a laugh. “Well, I don’t,” she said, trying to sit up. “I still feel weird about the whole model home thing. I’m not fooling around on someone’s unused bed. That’s just wrong.”

Aidan pulled her back down and went directly to her buttons, and when she went to move his hands away again, he pinned them above her head. “What if I told you that we had permission to do it?”

She frowned and then made a face. “Eww…that’s just…that’s just wrong, Aidan. You told the owners we were going to do it in their house? Major ick factor.”

“What if I told you that…
we
own this house? Technically then, you do know the owners and that would remove the ick factor.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “What do you say, Red? You up for christening the new house?”

“This is really our house? Like yours and mine?” Aidan nodded. “How…? When…?”

He shrugged. “I built the house over a year ago but couldn’t make myself finish it. That’s why I made the place over the garage, so I could come here and work on it and have a place to crash. Nothing felt…right. I already had a place in town by my dad, and this was just sort of a project for me that I knew I’d move in to someday.” He picked up one of her hands and kissed her palm. “Turns out I’m ready for someday.”

Her eyes softened at his words. “Me too.” But then in a swift move, she managed to roll away from him and off the bed.

“Hey!” He laughed. “What about christening the new house?”

“Oh, we’ll get to that,” she promised. “But first, I need to see the rest of it! Please! Can I?”

In that moment, he would give her anything she wanted.

“Is that a garden outside? I don’t remember seeing it the last time we were here.” Zoe peered out the window toward the back of the house.

Aidan shook his head. “I haven’t gotten around to it,” he said as he looked out the window over Zoe’s shoulder. There was a patch of wildflowers off in the distance.

“You see what’s out there, don’t you?”

He did and he wrapped his arms around Zoe’s waist and held her close. He had shared with her his theory on the daisies, and it just made the moment that much more perfect for him.

There were daisies in the field.

And he knew that his someday was ready to begin.

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