She laughed lightly.

“Dinner was perfect, and you know it,” she answered. “The night, the whole day, has been magical. You were perfect … no … you were more than perfect … um … .”

“Harley,” I cut in softly, and faced her. I drew a breath and let it out slowly to calm my jitters before asking, “Are you sure you could do this? Be in this? With me? Do more things like this? Go out as a couple? Hold hands? Kiss? Even in public sometimes? Let me show everyone how much I adore you? How attracted I am to you? How …”

She blew a breath out, and then said clearly, after checking for cars in neighboring lanes, “Give me a second, please. Just getting into the freeway here.”

I smiled nervously at her, even if she wasn’t looking at me. Was she ready for all of this? Her long, tapered fingers were loosely wrapped around the wheel, but her neck and back had tensed up. She bit on her lower lip, and I could see her mind was whirring.

“This is totally unlike anything I’ve ever been in, baby. When I’m with you I feel a sense of belonging, Aerin, of being part of a whole,” she started slowly. She eased into a middle lane on the freeway. Traffic was light, so she must have felt comfortable enough to reach a hand out. I grabbed it with both hands.

“Being with you feels as if I finally fit into a seamless whole that’s made up of your half, a half that I’d never realized had been missing,” she continued. “And my half.”

“I somehow don’t feel afraid to be vulnerable to you even if that exposes me to danger; unhesitatingly I want to offer my heart to you even if you could break it into a million pieces if this doesn’t work out.”

I brought her hand to my lips, opened her palm and kissed it fervently.

“This is not like me at all,” she added softly. “To expose myself like this to someone else, to feel so comfortable about losing control over the fate of my heart.”

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Aerin?” she asked quietly. “I know that people will talk; that this will be a somewhat controversial development, in terms of my reputation in the firm, with our clients, with any number of people who thought they knew me. There are probably lots of things I haven’t even considered as yet, as you said, including how it feels to be out in public, have people see me in a relationship with a woman …but somehow all that doesn’t factor into what’s important, right now.”