UNFORTUNATELY, OR PROBABLY FORTUNATELY, PIPER rented a car at the airport, so she’s currently in front of me, driving a few miles over the speed limit.
I’m still trying to process that she’s here and she wants me—everything about me, including Sammy. I’d hoped. I’d prayed. But there was still a nagging doubt in the back of my mind that Piper would ever settle for small town life. She’s always seemed bigger than that in my mind, more than what a place like French Settlement has to offer. But if she’s willing to make the sacrifice to be here with me, and Sammy, then I’m willing to do everything in my power to make her happy.
Finally, we turn off the main road and onto the street that leads home.
When I pull in the drive, I barely remember to turn my truck off before I’m out the door and jogging up to Piper’s car.
“In a hurry?” she asks with a soft smile and a quirk of her eyebrow.
“Just to get you in my bed, then I’m planning on takin’ my time.”
No quickies tonight. No leaving. Nowhere else to be, except exactly where we’re meant to be.
She steps out of the car and up to me, grabbing me by my shirt. Leaning up on her tip-toes, she’s almost eye-level with me. “This isn’t a quick fuck. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for slow.”
“You read my mind.”
“What else is going through that brilliant mind of yours?”
“I love you,” I breathe out, touching my nose to hers, but refraining my need to kiss her until I get out what I want to say. “I should’ve told you a long time ago. I was just scared and stupid. So fucking stupid. I should’ve never let you go. I should’ve asked you to stay. I should’ve given you a choice when it came to Sammy. Not sure why I ever doubted you. I should’ve known that you’d be amazing with her. But I couldn’t see past my insecurities. Forgive me. Tell me you’re gonna stay forever.”
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,” she says softly. “And I forgive you. Although, there’s nothing to forgive. I can’t fault you for being cautious . . . it’s my middle name. I think you and I are a lot more alike than we care to admit. But, hopefully, our incredible differences will keep some balance in the force.” She laughs, with a hint of emotion in her voice, and I crush her to me, wanting nothing more than to just hold her and know she’s mine.
For real.
“I love you,” she whispers into my chest. “I think I’ve loved you for a long time, but I just recently admitted it to myself or let myself believe it. Being without you was worse than dealing with my parents. I knew I had to find a way back here. Dani calling was what I needed to make the move.”
“I made the move,” I tell her.
“You told Dani to call me,” she counters. “I got on the plane.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have got on that plane, unless I told Dani to call you.”
We both pull back a little, as the usual banter between us fires up.
“Let’s just agree that we both made a move,” she suggests.
“Compromise, I like it,” I tell her with a waggle of my eyebrows.
“You’re so infuriating sometimes.” She rolls her eyes while trying to hide her smile.
“And you love me for it.” I pin her against the car, my arms caging her in.
“I do.” Her eyes bore into mine, straight to my soul. “I love every infuriating thing about you. I love that you’re rough around the edges. I love the way you can piss me off faster than anyone else I know. I love that you call me on my bullshit, and that I can all you on yours.”
“I love pissing you off,” I admit. “But not because you’re mad. I love the way your face lights up, like you’re ready for the challenge. It fucking turns me on. So, I hope you’re okay with me pissing you off for the next sixty years.”
“Only sixty?” she asks.
“Well, I figure when we’re ninety, I’ll trade you in on a new model.”
A slight punch to my gut makes me laugh, and then Piper’s arms are wrapped around my neck and her legs are around my waist. There’s nothing left for me to do but carry her in the house—straight to bed.
Waking up the next morning, I roll over and am met with the greatest sight known to man—free-range titties.
And they’re mine.
Well, not technically. But unlike in the past, I know exactly who they belong to, and she’s mine.
Again, not technically, or in the eyes of the law, but I’m hoping to change that one of these days, along with her last name.
Pulling myself away from the view, I roll over and grab the black box from the drawer of my nightstand. I roll it over in my hand, thinking about it and the night that eventually led us here.
Life, man, what a fucking roller coaster. If you’d have asked me a year ago where I’d be, I wouldn’t have said this. I didn’t even know what this was. All I knew was life on the road, with my band, living one day to the next. I didn’t even know I wanted this—settled down, being a dad to Sammy, lying here next to Piper.
This is happiness.
“I expected you to be ogling my boobs,” Piper says in a sleepy voice.
“I was,” I admit, rolling back over to face her, getting a look at all the goods—from her perfect tits to her beautiful face. “But then I remembered something I want you to have.”
A sly smile forms on her lips. “Round two?”
“Yes, but first, this.” I take her left hand and slip the ring on her finger. Last time this happened, I don’t even remember it. Vague snippets of that night have come back to me over the months, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember actually putting this ring on Piper’s finger. And now, I’m glad, because it’s one of the best feelings in the world.
“You want me to wear this?” She looks up at me with a soft look on her face, and then she looks down at the ring, splaying her fingers out to get a good look.
“I do,” I tell her, nodding my head. “Technically, I asked you. And technically, you said yes. So . . .”
“I did.” She smiles up at me. “I thought maybe you sold it or something. Why did you keep it?”
“For now.”
“You’re lying if you said you knew we’d be here, right now, under these circumstances,” she challenges.
“Okay, so I didn’t know, but I hoped.”
“And if you hadn’t pulled your head out of your ass . . . or I hadn’t come back? Then what?”
“So, I’m the only one who needed to pull their head out of their ass?” I question with a pointed look, earning a guilty smile. “I guess I would’ve had an expensive souvenir from our time together.”
“I think it would’ve worked out, regardless,” she says, with a thoughtful expression. “I think when two people are meant to be together, the universe makes it happen.”
“That might be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say.” I pull her to me, loving the feel of her bare skin against mine.
“I can be romantic.”
“If you really want to be romantic, tell me you’re gonna wear this.” I pick up her hand and kiss where the ring resides. “And that you’re gonna marry me one day.”
“Okay,” she breathes.
“Okay, what?” I ask, needing to hear her say it.
“I’m gonna wear this ring . . . and I’m gonna marry you one day.”
Rolling her over quickly, I climb on top of her. She laughs, tossing her head back and giving me access to her neck, which I could feast on for hours alone, but the rest of her body is calling to me, as well. I still feel like a starving man who can only be satiated by this woman beneath me.
As I make my way from her neck, down to her sexy shoulders and over to the Promised Land, Piper moans her appreciation.
“I’m still holding you to my condition,” she says, already a bit breathless as she moves her body under mine, searching for what she wants.
“What’s that, darlin’?”
“The one where you promised me a mind-blowing orgasm every day, for the rest of my life.”