Her Little White Lie (22 page)

She looked back up at him. “This is a fluff piece,” she said, sniffling. “No hard-hitting journalism, just a page of you talking about h-how much you love me, and your parents. And Ana.”

“I admit that maybe doing it in a public forum wasn’t the best thing but … all things considered …”

“Turnabout’s fair play.”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, it is. But this doesn’t replace what I need to say to you now. I love you.”

Paige’s heart expanded in her chest, more tears falling. “Dante, you’re ruining my makeup.”

“And you completely destroyed the way I saw myself, and life, so I’d say it’s a fair trade.” He stood and walked around his desk, his eyes intent on hers. “You were right, Paige. I lied to myself. Because I was afraid. Of everything. Part of me was locked up tight, and I never intended on letting it out. Not ever. But you’ve shown me, consistently, that the reward for bravery is worth the risk. You’ve been so brave, so much braver than I. You took a risk to protect Ana … You took a risk in confessing your love to me. You put yourself out there time and again and opened yourself up to rejection when you didn’t have to do that. And I was too cowardly to do the same.”

Paige tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. “We’ve
had different life experiences, Dante. I can’t even imagine what you went through. What that does to someone.”

“It changes you,” he said, his eyes filled with pain. “There’s no way around that. But what you said … it’s very true. And I can’t let my fear of a man so far in my past be more important than the woman here in my present, and my future. You were right. People do love me, and I have been afraid to accept it. To look for it. To see it. Because I didn’t want pain or grief to touch me ever again. And because of that, I’ve been living a cold life. I thought that by keeping everything well-ordered around me, that by accumulating more things, more success, I would somehow change from who I was into who I needed to be. But none of it mattered. None of it was real. None of it changed me. It just let me hide. From myself. From everyone. Everyone except you. You dragged me into the light. And I’ve learned something, Paige.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Light is stronger. I used to think that the two of them were different sides of the same coin. That with one, always came the other. That way of thinking … it helped me reason out what had happened when I was kid. It helped me find a way to believe that by behaving a certain way, I could control things. And now I’ve realized two things, the first being that I can’t control everything. And the second is that light casts out darkness. When you shine it bright, it fills every corner, and it eradicates anything dark. There is nowhere for it to hide. That’s what you’ve done for me. You shone a light on my soul, and now I’m filled with it. With your love.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Paige. I am so thankful for everything you are, because it’s everything I needed. You are perfect in every way.”

“Even when I get glitter on you?”

“Even then. Maybe especially then. Because I love that you come with color, and paint, and glitter.”

“And a baby?”

“Most especially a baby. I want to be your husband,” he said, “forever. And I also want to be Ana’s father. Her real father. I never let myself realize just how much this is true, but I have a wonderful example of what a father should be in Don Colson. And I want to be that for Ana. I want to guide her, support her and love her. I’m afraid I’ll mess it up, but I want to try.”

“And if she wants to be an artist slash window dresser like her mother?”

“She’s welcome to it. I’ll build her an art studio.”

“What about if she wants to be a CEO like her father?”

“She could do that, too. She can do anything.”

“I think she can, too,” Paige said, happiness filling her, suffusing her.

“And one of the most important things I hope to teach her, is through example,” he said, his voice getting rough. “I hope to show her what love looks like, every day. By loving her as a father should love a daughter. And I hope to show her the kind of love that should exist between a husband and wife, by loving her mother, every day, as long as we both shall live.”

A
NA
started crawling the day the adoption was finalized.

“She’s really moving now,” Paige said.

Dante watched Ana rock back and forth on her hands and knees before moving forward again, heading straight for the coffee table. He scooped her up into his arms, keeping her from certain disaster. “You have to watch your head,
stellina
,” he said.

Ana had most definitely become his little star, not just because she was one of the two people at the center of his universe, but because she had healed so much pain in him.

He had vowed to teach Ana what love was, and yet, he found she was the one who taught him. Every day.

“Before you know it, she’ll be dating,” Paige said, giving him a mischievous smile.

He frowned. “No. I’m not thinking that far ahead.”

“Why? Are you afraid some handsome Italian is going to come and sweep her off her feet?”

“Yes,” he said.

Paige laughed. “You do have to watch those Italians. I should know. I’m a terminal case for the one I married.”

She looped her arms around both him and Ana and kissed him on the cheek.

“So you don’t regret it?” he asked, knowing she didn’t, but liking to hear it anyway.

“Nope. Not one bit. There is one thing that will be hard to explain to Ana, though.”

“What’s that? Why you and I disappear behind closed bedroom doors for hours on end?”

She laughed. “Uh, I don’t plan on explaining that. But that isn’t what I meant.”

“What then?”

“It’ll be hard to explain to her why telling a lie led to the best thing that ever could have happened to me.”