“How?” Vince didn’t want to be any kind of burden to Lace.
Her eyes closed and she looked…sad.
“Before you clowned your way into my life,” she stated gruffly with a wry attempt at a chuckle, “I was pretty sure I was going to go completely flat-chested. Both sides. No additional surgeries or prosthetics. Just me. Curve-less. But now… Dammit, I want to be a whole woman for you, Vince.” Her voice broke. “Which is why I was daring to invite you into my bed. I want to do things with you before I’m…different.”
Vince knew that his next words might be the most important of his life, so he chose them carefully.
“Lace. Look at me.”
She still had her eyes closed, but opened them slowly.
They were brimming with unshed tears, and Vince hated that.
His thumb caught one errant droplet as it fell.
“I’m going to lay everything on the line here, and I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.”
Lace nodded, and Vince squared his shoulders.
“I’ve only known you for a couple of weeks, but it seems like I’ve been waiting for you, forever.”
She looked hopeful.
“You heard me mention that I’ve done a lot of…sampling, over the years, so I know my own mind, and… Lace. I’ll give it to you in a nutshell. You’re it for me. The complete package.”
He sucked in a lungful of air.
“Now for the crazy part. And you can either scoff at it or embrace it.”
She kept her eyes on him, completely focused.
“I’m falling in love with you, Lace.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“This feels so…odd,” Lace told Vincent as they entered the pediatric chemo suite.
Since she’d already told Captain Ass-hat that she was switching her day off to Tuesdays, she’d decided to take advantage of that and take the day off, away from the man’s stressful presence, even though her chemo team wouldn’t be hooking her up again for another week.
“What’s odd?” Vince asked.
“Being here and not being infused,” she told him honestly.
“Does it make you uncomfortable?”
Vince watched closely for her response, putting on that wonderful, overprotective thing she’d glimpsed from him before.
But there was nothing to see here.
“Not at all,” she assured him with a shrug. “It’s just weird.”
Vince took her hand. “I get it, but I’m happy you came for Inez,” he told her sincerely. “If I can’t get permission to be with her during her shit treatments, I know you’ll be able to finagle it.”
Lace went up on tiptoes and kissed his painted cheek.
“I’ll get us both in,” she promised. “Don’t worry.”
While they walked toward the nurses’ station, she stole a glance at Vince in his clown outfit.