Page 55 of Dirt Driven

My eyes drifted to her hand, and more importantly, the rock she was wearing. “Holy shit.” I grabbed it and stared at her finger. “Oh my God, congratulations!”

Kinsley burst into tears. “It’s so exciting.”

“Then why are you crying?” Caden asked, handing the laptop to Rager and shifting forward in his chair to rub her knee.

“Because I’ve dreamed of this happening since I met you.” Her teary eyes moved to his. “And it all feels like a dream.”

“Ah, babe.” Caden laughed, hugging her with one arm. The baby squirmed between them as Caden pressed his lips to her temple.

“So, how’d he do it?” I asked, wanting details. They were so young, it made me curious how Caden went about it.

Caden chuckled, settling into his chair. “Maybe leave out some of the details.”

Kinsley’s blush was immediate. “Well, yeah.”

Hayden plopped down next to me in the camp chair, coffee in one hand, a muffin in the other. “Tell useverything.”

Gray, who’d followed her, took the muffin from her mom and glared at Caden. “I don’t want to hear this.”

Caden watched Gray walking away. “What’d I do? She won’t talk to me now.”

“She’s in love with you,” Hayden told him, slurping her coffee. “Fuck, that’s hot.” She leveled Caden a serious look. “But don’t go getting a big head. She loved Harry Styles too.”

Laughing, I glanced over at Rager to see him watching me. Noticing my legs were crossed, his eyes made a brazen pass over my body and then he winked. For some reason, I flashed back to the day he first told me he loved me.

The blanket around me, soft cotton touching overly sensitive skin, slipped off my shoulders. My body hurt to the point that I didn’t move to adjust the blanket. Every muscle had been pushed beyond comfort from sleeping on the air mattress.

Everything from the warm breeze kissing my skin, the light blue and gray clouds, and the man next to me relaxed me in ways I had no words to describe. A gentle sway of the trees, a bird chirping, sky growling, all reminders of why this place would forever hold a memory for me.

Coasting his nose along my shoulder, his lips pressing lightly to the freckles that kissed my skin, his touch torched mine. I breathed out, long and slow, wanting to hide everything I was feeling.

“I love you….” His lips brushed over my clammy skin as he spoke.

I twisted my head around at the words. My breath caught in my throat, pulse pounding in my ears as a shock of nerves rushed through me.

I’ve always loved you.

He’d never said those words to me before. He’d said he was in love… but never uttered the words in that context, delivered in that way.

“Rager—”

“Shhh. Don’t say anything. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because, whatever comes next, I don’t care.” His arms bound around my shoulders forced me to stay against his chest. “I didn’t say it because I wanted to hear you say it. I said it because I wanted you to hear it and to think about what it means. I don’t want to hear anything back because those words were meant for you to feel, not to reply to.”

I would have said it back.

“I don’t want to let go,” he muttered into the breeze after a long pause, his lips pressing to my temple. His voice sounded so far away, so regret-filled that I hardly recognized it from the cool, collected boy I knew.

“I hate that this isn’t easy.”

In reality, Rager had no idea how much anxiety I had over this and how with every word we didn’t say, I felt like it was going to overwhelm me completely.

“Nothing is ever easy when it comes to us,” he noted, feeling the warm breeze against my back. “This could be us forever.”

“It will be us forever.”

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