Page 36 of Nashville Lights

“So, how’s the ‘bachelor’ lifestyle treating you these days?” She even uses air quotes around the word. Digging for clues about my life, maybe.

“Well, Tuck, it’s pretty quiet if you really want to know.” I think back to the summer I turned nineteen and she was fifteen. I was overwhelmed by her. She was on the cusp of blossoming into the smart, brave, beautiful young womanshe was always destined to be. I couldn’t resist her even though I had to.

I’d never felt anything like what being around her stirred in me. Until I left and locked it away because she was too young and her family was my family. Now that she’s here and she’s blown the blockade off that room in my heart where I always kept her hidden away, I don’t know if I can control the intensity of this surge of feelings.

My lust—which has been as locked up as the rest of me, because my life isn’t only my own and no one I’m with is ever her—is suddenly a beast of fucking need that wants to befed.

She’s not just the woman of my dreams but also now a consenting adult who’s capable of making her own decisions.

And this isn’t just physical attraction. It goes soul-deep. She’s always been able toseeme in a way that no one else could. Not as the dutiful son or the responsible older brother.

As myself.

It almost shocks me how much I need her. How much I want her in my life again.

Roxie catches me staring and her cheeks get pink. “So…can I see more of the house?”

I’ve never stopped being in love with her. And I’m done denying what feels like it’s always been written in the stars.

Fuck everything. She’s mine.

I slowly reach to weave my fingers through hers. Her lips part softly at the contact. “You want to see my room?”

14

Nate holds my hand,our fingers locked together, guiding me down a hall lined with photographs of the farm. Some are black and white. There are a few of his parents. There are baby pictures. Landscapes. Family portraits and polaroids.

There’s one of him and a guy who could only be Jed—Daisy looks just like a tiny little girl version of him—with their arms slung around each other’s shoulders, maybe in their early twenties. There’s one of Nate holding Daisy, as a baby, with Jed and Laney in the background.

There are dozens of photos of our families together. One with Nate and Kade sitting on motorcycles, smiling for the camera. Another one of the two of them, shirtless in jeans, leaning against a fence they’d been fixing.

There’s one of Nate with all three of my brothers, somewhere in town when they used to travel as a pack.

One of Nate’s whole family, before their dad’s heart attack.

One with all nine of us as sun-kissed kids, proudly showing off a fort we’d built.

One of me and Dakota, dressed in our usual country cowgirl outfits. We might have been fourteen or fifteen.

It’s our shared history.

“It’s us.”

“Yeah, it’s us.”

I’m sort of stricken by the beauty of the house and also by its familiarity. I couldbelonghere so easily.

I don’t know how he did it, but it’s like he read my mind. All the little details. The big, inviting kitchen with its farmhouse table that’s the perfect place to raise a family. The view of Tennessee that we always used to talk about. The dreamy pink princess’s room. The photos of our past already in place. It can’t be true, but it’s almost like he designed all of it…forme.

Still holding my hand in his warm, rough grasp, he leads me into his bedroom. “This is it.”

Nate’s room is enormous, rustic and masculine but at the same time luxurious because it has so obviously been designed and built by people who are exceptionally good at what they do.

His bed must be one of those Californian kings. Thewall of sliding glass doors opens out onto a balcony with its own hot tub and more stunning views. Off to one side of the bedroom is a massive walk-in closet and a spacious master bathroom. I get a glimpse of sandstone and a huge free-standing bath.

“It feels like you.”It also feels like me.“Thanks for showing me.”

Nate’s fingers tighten on mine and he pulls me closer. For a long moment we just stand there, hands clasped. The air is electric. Just like it was all those years ago in the barn.

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