Page 91 of Between the Stars

JACE

I pulled out a ring. And my dick.

By the timeI’m done at the ranch, Abbi is awake and sitting in the living room with Josie, who has her hands on Abbi’s stomach, talking to the babies.

“You’re gonna love me more than your daddy.” She rubs another spot. “Please kick for me.”

“They don’t like you.” I close the door with my foot. “That’s why.” I haven’t felt them move yet either, but I’m not about to tell Josie that.

Abbi pushes Josie off her. “I thought you’d be later.”

“Finished up early.” Winking at her, I make my way to the kitchen, set my empty coffee mug in the sink, and then stare out the window at the barren land behind my parents’ property. On the other side of the clearing, to the south, is the piece of land I bought.

It’s time I show her why I’ve been reluctant to move out of my parents’ home. A place I’ve lived my entire life. I’ve been holding out on showing her this land. I don’t know why I haven’t told Abbi about the house, or why nobody else hasn’t ratted me out, but I’m curious what she’s going to think.

I hear her footsteps behind me and smile as she wraps her arms around my stomach from behind before resting her head between my shoulder blades. I wonder if she can feel the rapid beat of my heart or the nerves inside me. There’s a ring in my nightstand, and I’ve been trying to decide if it’s time, or too soon. Two weeks ago, she was stepping foot in a church, tied to another man, and here we are now—beginning a life together like we happened to make a wrong turn and we’re finally going with the flow of traffic.

Abbi breathes in deeply. “You smell like fresh air and sunshine.”

My lips quirk. I fell in love with a girl when I was eight years old. I might not have told you that story, but I did. And through the years and my own decisions, it devastated me, and everyone around us, over the shit we did. Including our own hearts. I’m to blame for letting her go. I don’t know how long it will take to convince her I’m in this, but I will wait and hope that she sees the truth. Time. That’s all I have between me and the woman I love.

“Take a drive with me?” I whisper, turning to face her.

She smiles up at me. “Do I need to wear a dress for easy access?” she teases, remembering the night I snuck her out of the house when she was sixteen and begged her to wear a dress so I didn’t have to work as hard to get her naked.

“Wouldn’t hurt.” I slide my hands from her hip to her ass and squeeze.

* * *

One of themost fucked-up things that will ever happen to you is meeting the right person at the wrong time. That was Abbi and me. Right person, wrong time, and finally, as the sun sets over Amarillo and we rock against one another in the back seat of my Jeep, I know our forever is now. I also don’t know why, but we’re constantly fucking in cars.

“I love you,” I growl, pulling her into my chest, desperate for the connection.

I dig my fingers into her back, my heart pounding. I kiss her, my tongue sliding against hers, unable to wait for her response.

“I love you.” She moans, arching her back and pushing her chest into mine.

I smile at the bump in her stomach and the fact that we’re parked on our land, where I’m going to make our dreams come true someday soon and she doesn’t even know it.

Coming down off the high, Abbi’s smiles, still straddling me. “What are you thinking?”

As Morgan Wallen plays softly in the background, I turn Abbi’s head toward the soon to be house, the sun perfectly setting around the framed building. “Wondering about forever,” I murmur, my fingers sliding along her jaw before I cup the back of her head and urge her eyes to our left.

She hadn’t been paying attention when we drove up here, but now the view is clear.

“Oh my God, we’re parked on someone else’s land.” She urges me to move, but I tighten my left hand on the top of her thigh. Pain shoots up my forearm and shoulder, but I push the sensation aside.

I reclaim her lips and grip her tighter. She draws back, searching my face. Does she see I’m giving her every piece of myself? I inhale her scent, losing myself in her beauty as I bury my face in her neck. “Our land.”

“What?” she rasps, gaze dropping and eyes filling with tears.

“My granddaddy left me this land a couple years back. That” I pause and nod to the framed house. “is our dreams coming true.”

Her expression falters, and then she searches my eyes. She swallows. Her deepening smile releases the anxiety I’ve been holding onto. “You’re building a house?”

“We’rebuilding a house. For us.” My hand drops from her cheek to her stomach.

Just when I’m thinking about showing her the house, that dumb blue heeler dog I’ve been avoiding out here comes running up to the Jeep like we’re best friends. “Go away, dickhead,” I snap at him as he jumps up to peer into the windows, searching for me. “Get down.” He doesn’t fucking listen. I don’t know where this dog came from, but he showed up the day I signed the deed on this place and hasn’t left. Every time I come up here, he comes running from the woods behind the property.

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