Page 81 of 7 Dirty Lies

Iswallowed.Home.

“Youreadit?”

His hand tightened.“I love it, Lily.I’m so proudofyou.”

A massive weight lifted off my shoulders with those two sentences.I leaned back so I could look at him.“You’re not mad I wroteaboutus?”

“I got to see what you see.Feel what you feel.How could I be mad about that?It’s pretty much the greatestthingever.”

“But I’ll be sharing us with theworld.”

He brushed my hair back, his fingers trailing my cheeks.“Only one part.An amazing part.I gettherest.”

“Yes you do.”I rose up on my toes and pressed my lips against his.“You liked theending?”

He grinned, his eyes flashing.“You mean the part where we’re holding hands in the fields as the sun sets?Or the part right before it where Annie says ‘thisishome’?”

My heart thudded up against my ribs.“Thehomepart.”As I rewrote the ending Ted didn’t like, in my giant Maureen O’Hara bed, it struck me that I felt like I belonged in that giant house.That if I left right then I’d be sad because it would feel like I’d left the place I belonged to.And ever since Ididactually leave, I’d had this ache in my chest, a yearning to be back.Not just to be with Colt—because that part’s just a given—but to see Grayson wandering the halls, to make a midnight snack in the giant kitchen, take meals in the family dining room with the giant window, and, most importantly, wander thefields.

I wanted to spend the rest of my lifethere.

So I wrote itthatway.

“You really feel like the ranch is home?”He searched my eyes with a hopeful smile on his lips.“The way you described it,” he took a breath and shook his head in wonder, “it was like alovepoem.”

That’s exactly what it was.“I hope I described it in a way that would connectwithyou.”

“And at night when the house is silent, and calm has settled the laughter, I’ll dream of dawn, and rolling fields, as I bite the fruit of our labor.”He kissed me and pressed our foreheads together, his hands still on my face and his eyes screwed shut.“I’m framing that and putting it overourbed.”

Then he opened his eyes and gazed lovingly into mine.“That is, if you’ll come homewithme.”

“There’s never been aquestion.”

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