“If I ever leave my loft in Dallas, this is exactly what I’d want,” she answered.
He let go of her hand. “It’s going up for sale in another week. If you like it, we might put in a bid on it.”
“Are you serious? Why would we live in Del Rio?” She could tell that he was about to burst with excitement, but in a far different way than she was. Her head suddenly throbbed. He was going to propose and ask her to move in with him. The next thing would be marriage and then babies.
“I’m ready for a life change, and I want you to be with me all the time.”
Sophie was stunned speechless.
“Is that a no?” Teddy asked.
“It’s a give-me-a-minute-to-catch-my-breath-and-think-for-a-second.” She dropped her fork on the table.
“Then is it a yes?” he asked. “You can work anywhere, and you must like this area, because you come down here every year to paint.”
“Teddy, I’ve got a hefty savings account, but can we afford to do something like this?” she whispered.
“Remember that trust that my father left me? I’m thirty-five, so it’s mine now, and, honey, we can afford to do anything we want,” he said. “I can’t see myself not working, but I’m tired of traveling. I want roots, and I want to put them down with you. And the rest of the surprise is this . . .” He took a long drink of his beer.
Her head was spinning. Good God, was he about to propose? Was that the rest of the surprise?
“I want to use some more of my trust fund to buy an old store on Main Street. It was built back in the days when owners with a place like that would put a furniture store on the ground floor and a funeral home upstairs. There’s still a service elevator where they took the caskets up to the parlor. The last folks that owned it had an antique store in it, but I . . .” He took another long drink of his beer.
She had been in an old store like that in a little town in the northern part of the state and loved the feeling she got when she was inside it, surrounded by all those old dishes and antiques. Each one had a story to tell, if they could only talk.
“I want to put a gallery in the downstairs and turn the loft into an area for you to paint. I’ll run the gallery while you paint, and then we’ll come home to this house,” he finally spit out.
“Have I reached a place in my career that I should do that?” She had to give him an answer. She couldn’t break his heart, but . . .
There are no buts in love, the voice in her head said. If there are, then you need to end this relationship right now and let Teddy find someone who will give him what he needs and wants.
He laid a hand on hers. “Honey, you saw that place where you were just a struggling artist in the rearview mirror years ago. You are known internationally, so yes, you are ready. We can do the Europe thing and come home to settle down into our own place, with our own store.”
Sophie’s eyes filled with tears. “This is too much to take in all at once.”
“The last thing is that I want us to get married. I want to know that you are mine forever,” he said.
And there it was. The very thing that she had dreaded.
“First, I have to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone else,” she whispered—could she even say the words? Her emotions zoomed as if on a roller coaster that sucked her breath right out of her chest. Her hands trembled so badly that she laced her fingers together and held them in her lap. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Spit it out and then say yes to everything I’ve suggested.” He took her hands in his. “You are shaking, darlin’. Talk to me. There’s nothing we can’t get through together.”
“I . . . there was . . . ,” she stammered.
“Is this something that happened before I met you?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Then it doesn’t matter,” he said.
“Yes, it does, because it’s my biggest fear. I know you want children, and I’m terrified that God will punish me and never let me have kids, or if I do, I’ll be a terrible mother.” Tears streamed down Sophie’s face.
“Why would you even think that?” he asked. “Rebel is a fantastic mother, and she’ll make an amazing grandmother. You’ll be more like her, I’m sure because she was your role model, not Victoria.”
“I got pregnant my first semester in college,” she said in a voice so low that she could barely hear herself speak.
“You had a baby?” Teddy’s expression went to sheer shock.
“No, I lost it.” She sucked in a lungful of air. “I didn’t do anything to cause it, but I always felt guilty because I didn’t want a baby at that time in my life. The father was a substitute art teacher, and I didn’t know until he’d already gone back to Chicago that he was married and had children. Victoria didn’t want children, and look what she did to Em. What if . . .”
“Good Lord, Sophie, why didn’t you talk to me about this before?” Teddy scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the sofa. He sat down with her and kept his arms tightly around her. “You shouldn’t have carried this burden all alone.”
She shook her head. “I was afraid of losing you. I’m terrified of getting married because look what my father did, and then that substitute teacher cheated on his wife with me. I’ve always been afraid that . . .”
“That marriage would change what we have?” he asked. “Darlin’, that will never happen, whether we have a conventional marriage or just a commitment ceremony.”
“Or jump the broom?” She smiled through the tears.
“What’s this about jumping a broom?” He tipped up her chin and brushed a soft kiss across her lips.
She told him the short version of what Filly had said.
He chuckled and pressed his forehead against hers. “I would be honored to say my vows and jump the broom with you if you are proposing to me.”
“Then I think I am,” she said. “Are you sure you’re all right with what I told you?”
“Honey, that happened before I was part of your life.” He hugged her even tighter. “And you need to give up that guilt trip right along with the one about Em. You are an amazing person, and when we’re ready, we’ll be wonderful parents. But first we’ve got a trip to Europe, a business to put in, and a broom to jump. Just when is this ceremony going to take place?”
Sophie thought maybe she was dreaming and started to pinch herself. But this was real, and she wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that she had finally told someone about her baby, or skeptical that she could be absolved in the blink of an eye. She’d carried the burden, as Teddy called it, for seventeen years. How could she just shake it off now? She immediately thought of Emma trying to get past what she had endured.
“Well?” Teddy asked. “Do you want to jump the broom as soon as we get back from Europe or wait until we get established here in Del Rio?”
“July Fourth,” she blurted, “at the trailer park. That way my friends can be at the ceremony, and it’s the last week I’ve got the trailer rented. We’ll have a weeklong honeymoon right here in our own house before we settle down to a nine-to-five job of running our new gallery.”