She shrugged away with tears in her eyes.
He cringed with her rejection.
Katie wrapped her arms around her own waist. “I won’t stand in the way. I love you both too much to break up your family.”
All he could think of when driving home was how he and Katie could work this out together. They would decide together if Savannah would ever know who her real mother was.
“Look at me, Katie. You’re my family,” he said. Dean moved in front of her a second time, didn’t let her shrug away again as he pulled her into his arms. “You’re Savannah’s mother.”
“You spent all day with Savannah’s mother. You didn’t take your calls from me.” Katie tugged back.
Dean kept her close and stared into her eyes. “I spent the day getting answers. Maggie had my child and didn’t tell me. I had to find out what she was thinking. After I left, I drove around trying to figure out how to tell you about this whole mess. I don’t have any romantic attachment to Maggie. Something she knew long before she had Savannah.”
Katie’s struggles to get out of his embrace froze. “You didn’t love her?”
“No, Katie. It’s impossible for me to love two women at the same time. Maggie knew I was in love with someone else.”
Katie blinked through her tears. “Me?”
“Of course you,” he said with a half smile. “She saw through me. When she found out she was pregnant she decided to give you Savannah because she didn’t think I was ready to be a dad…and she knew you wanted to be a mom.”
“How could she know that, Dean?” Katie trembled but he refused to let her go.
“Somewhere in the rulebook of guy I forgot the rule on talking about my ex. I talked a lot about you…a lot. Something in those conversations…or what I said in passing, made her realize how much I still loved you. Maggie believed that we’d find each other eventually, make amends.”
“What if we’d never figured it out? What if I’d taken Savannah and left the country?”
Dean ran his hands up and down Katie’s arms. “Maggie would have told me…eventually.”
She’d stopped shaking and the tears were fading. Dean followed Katie down to the couch.
“Does…does she want Savannah back?” Pain laced Katie’s question.
Dean kissed her forehead. “No. She’s not ready to be a mom. I’m not sure I like her explanation for leaving Savannah, but it is what it is.”
Katie stared at Savannah. “There are plenty of people who can have kids and not be a parent.”
Both of them watched Savannah in her swing, lost in their thoughts.
Katie squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry, Dean. I should have told you about Savannah the minute I found out. My own selfish insecurities stopped me.”
He hushed her. Katie didn’t own the title of insecure. “You’re not the only one feeling guilty. I took Savannah to my doctor and had a paternity test.”
“You did? When?”
“The day after you left. I kept thinking about the letter left with Savannah and the conversations I’d had with Maggie. I couldn’t believe she’d have my child and not tell me. But then there’s that little bundle.” He nodded to his little girl, smiled. “She has the Prescott nose.” He saw it now as sure as the one on his face. “I knew it was possible Savannah was mine.”
“She does have your nose. Your appetite, too.”
“I didn’t want to tell you over the phone either,” he said.
Katie offered a coy smile.
Dean placed his palm on the side of her cheek. “I wouldn’t have gone back to Maggie. Yeah, I was raised to take responsibility for what’s mine, for what I created. But I wouldn’t leave you for her. It’s you I love, Katie. Not her. It’s you I want to be the mother of my children…Savannah and any others we may choose to have. You are my family and I’m not giving you up ever again. Either of you.”
He kissed her then, sealing his words, and doing everything he could to burn his conviction into her brain.
From the baby swing, a clapping sound shortened their kiss. Savannah sat with a smile on her face as she clapped her hands together.
Katie’s laugh warmed the part of him that had been chilled all day. “Looks like Savannah approves.”
He kissed her forehead and hugged her close. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dean.” They settled into the couch and watched Savannah watching them. “This means we’re getting married…right?”
Dean found her question funny and started to snicker.
She pushed away and offered a playful frown.
His laughter reduced to giggles. “I wanted to have a ring before I dropped to my knee.”
“A ring?”
“Yeah, shiny thing I put on your finger before I ask. A ring.”
She frowned and leaned back into his arms.
“You know,” she said a moment later, “you don’t have to have a ring to ask.”
“We already have a child before the wedding. I don’t want to mess up all those traditions.” He’d search out the perfect ring first thing in the morning. He’d already had one in mind before she left for Florida.
She huffed out a breath. “But you are going to ask…”
Oh, boy, he could see they weren’t going to get far. “The question isn’t if I’ll ask, it’s if I can get to it faster than your father and my best friend show up at the door with a shotgun. That’s the question.”