Page 151 of Bloom

I mouth his name cautiously, confused, as I cross the street. “What’re you doing here?”

Hunter straightens. He uncrosses his arms and sets his hands on his hips, and it strikes me that he looks like the Hunter I first met months ago—stern, stoic, andgrumpy. “You were really gonna leave me here, huh?”

My eyes go wide. “Hunter—”

He shakes his head, his mouth a severe, straight line. “You weren’t gonna ask me to come?”

My lips part, nothing but air passing between them.

Hunter clucks his tongue at my silence. Snatching my food away, he leans in the open window to set it on the passenger seat, murmuring all the while. “Been waitin’ all fuckin’ week, Caroline. Every time you opened your mouth, I thought you were gonna ask. But you didn’t, so I thoughtokay. You don’t want me to. I can respect that.”

Again, I try to speak—I try to insist the opposite.

Again, he interrupts me.

Towering over me, he traps me in place with that hazel gaze, with a hand cupping my nape. “But then I remembered I know you. You’ve never asked for anything you wanted a day in your life. Why would you start now?”

He stoops lower until we’re all but sharing breath. “I had half a mind to let you leave just to teach you a lesson, but I don’t have it in me.”

He—

My gaze darts to the truck bed. I stare long and hard at the bag that doesn’t belong to me. I mull over the ridiculous,impossibleconclusion my brain draws for a long, long moment before squeaking, “You’re coming?”

Hunter grunts, his mouth brushing my temple. “Of course I am.”

“But you love it here.”

“Becauseyou’rehere.”

“But…” So manybuts. “What about Gaia?”

His smirk burns my skin. “Gaia is a horse, honey.”

“But Lux—”

“Reamed me out when she thought I was letting you go. She got a couple of good shots in before I set her straight.”

I reel backward. “Sheknows?”

“I quit the day you told me.”

He quit. He freaking quit. Hequit?

He pulls back, letting me see all that bleeding sincerity as he drawls, “If I got it wrong, if you don't want me to come, if you wanna do this alone, that’s okay. You go. But I was never gonna stay without you. How could I?”

How could he?How could he, he says like being here without me is unfathomable, like it’s ridiculous.

I pinch my arm, hissing when it hurts, and his mouth twitches as he conceals a smile. “Not a dream, honey.”

No, it’s not. It’s really, really not.

My head hurts. I feel a little faint. My heart pounds so erratically in my chest, I expect it to burst out of its cavity any moment now. Before it can, I move.

Right there on Main Street, in broad daylight, I throw myself at Hunter. Legs around his waist, arms around his neck, I kiss him like a woman possessed. He smiles and he laughs and he kisses me back, and even though I’m pretty sure my answer is abundantly clear, he still whispers in my ear, “Please, honey. Can I come with you?”

And even though he knows, even though he doesn’t need it, I whisper back, “I love you.”

EPILOGUE

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