Page 138 of Moonlit Colorado

Dane rounded the car and got in. Once he was in the driver’s seat, he reached over and opened the glove compartment, pulling out a small rectangular box wrapped in silver paper with a gold bow.

I smiled as Dane set it in my lap. Maybe Iwasgetting a little greedy, but I blamed him. Always spoiling me. But when I picked up the package, studying its shape and feeling how light it was, the smile slipped from my face.

Oh lordy. Was this what I thought it was?

I glanced up at him, my eyes probably wide as saucers. He laughed. “Relax. It’s not that.”

My shoulders lowered. I wanted everything with Dane, but an engagement was a step more than I was ready for. And like he so often did, he’d read that on my face.

“Go ahead and open it.”

I untied the bow and lifted the lid. A key lay inside. It looked like a house key. Nervous excitement surged into my chest again. “What’s this?”

Dane started the engine and put the car in gear. “Well, I have a confession. Your real present isn’t really here in the car. I fudged the truth. The key is only a small part of it.”

“What did you do?”

He grinned. “Patience. I’m driving you there right now.”

After the first few turns, I had no idea where Dane was heading. We were driving away from Main Street and the central commercial district. Driving toward the foothills.

Then I really started to wonder. But when Dane took a certain street and a familiar house appeared up the block, my mind turned into a whirlwind.

No. Way.

He pulled into the driveway of an adorable, one-story bungalow with cheerful yellow siding and a tiny porch. Snow dusted the rooftop and lawn. But in the summer, I knew the grass would fill in, and the back window of the house would overlook fields of wildflowers leading up toward the hills.

Dane switched off the SUV and nodded at the key he had given me. “Have you guessed it yet?”

“You didn’t,” I said breathlessly.

He smirked. “Oh yes, I did.”

“You bought this house?Myold house?” This was the place I had used to rent. The house that I had loved and improved with such care before the landlord broke our oral agreement and I got forced out. “How did you even know?” I had never mentioned this place to Dane. I’d moved out of it before I had even met him.

“Callum told me. Said how heartbroken you were when you had to leave it. So I worked out a deal with the new owner. Made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

“That’s ominous.”

Dane laughed. “Nah, just offered her a tidy profit and covered her moving expenses. We closed last week, and she’s all moved out.”

I still couldn’t get my head around it. “You talked about buying a place, but I figured you meant a fancy custom home up in the hills. This place is tiny. I adore it, but it’s much smaller than your apartment back in New York. Smaller than your hotel suite.”

His hand cupped the back of my neck. “Technically, I didn’t buy it for me. I bought it foryou. There’s some more paperwork we need to do, but the house will be in your name. I’d love to live here with you, if you ask me, and the square footage doesn’t matter to me. I just care that you like it. You can do whatever you want with this place. Even make it an investment and rent it out. It’s yours.”

This. Man.

“I…I don’t know what to say. Except thank you. And I love you.”

“Anything for you,” he said simply. And for Dane, it really was that simple. He leaned over to kiss me, and I held his face, opening up to the strokes of his tongue and then returning them with equal passion. I tried to put everything I was feeling into that kiss. How much I loved him. How I would do anything for him too.

If Dane wanted to live here with me, my dream guy in this adorable house, then I was all in.

But seriously, I had to come up with an epic Christmas present for him next year. I had some catching up to do.

“So you thought I was proposing when you first saw that gift box, huh?” he asked after we both had to take a breath.

I felt a blush spread up my neck and into my cheeks. “I want that someday. Don’t get me wrong. But…”

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