Page 107 of Coming Home Country
Swallowing, I nodded.
Molly clapped her hands. “Show’s over, ladies. Looks like this one’s already taken.”
There was a chorus of disgruntled murmurs, and one muttered, “Lucky bitch,” as they dispersed.
A shoulder bumped mine, and I tore my gaze away from the man of my dreams, standing only ten feet away after I’d left him broken on his bedroom floor two days ago.
“Heard him ask for a Bex when I passed by on my way back from a coffee run. Took me a minute, but then I remembered that you used to go by that when you first started here.” Molly’s smirk couldn’t be contained. “If that’s who you were doing down in Oklahoma, it was time well spent.”
She had no idea.
With trembling hands, I pushed through the glass door. Almost like he could sense my presence, Tucker spun on his booted heel, and the love shining in his eyes acted like a defibrillator, restarting the rhythm of my heart.
His voice was thick when he spoke. “Bex, I—”
I held up a hand to cut him off. “W-what are you doing here?”
A sheepish grin crept onto his face as he ran a hand through that tousled sandy-brown hair. “I love you so much that I can’t stand the thought of another day spent without you.”
Our receptionist, Bella, clasped both hands to her chest as she let out a wistful sigh.
Even though tears blurred my vision, hope filled my chest like a balloon, and I teased on a watery laugh. “Didn’t even make it two days, huh?”
Tucker stepped closer, shaking his head. “Baby, if I thought the ten years without you was hell, that was nothing compared to the torture of these past two days. When we were kids, we had no idea what we were missing out on when it all fell apart. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of what having you in my life, in my arms, in my home feels like, I can’t go back to the way things were before.” He took a deep breath before continuing, “As much as I’d love for you to come back to Rust Canyon, if this is where you need to be, then we’ll make it work.”
“Do the long-distance thing again?” I hedged.
“No.” His tone was firm. “Wherever you are, that’s where I’ll be.”
The butterflies inside my belly flapped so wildly that it was a wonder my feet remained on the ground. “You would do that?”
“Don’t you get it, Bex? I would doanythingfor you.” He swallowed so hard that the tip of his Adam’s apple bobbed the length of his throat. “I’ve made some pretty big mistakes when it comes to us, but I refuse to allow letting you go become one of them.”
A sob slipped past my lips, and I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face in his chest. The soft flannel soaked up my tears as Tucker’s hand soothed over my back.
“What’ll it be? We moving my life up here? Or am I takin’ you home?”
Home. That one word held so much meaning.
It could be applied to this man, the town we grew up in, or the house he built for me.
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wanted all three rolled into one. Because combined, they painted a picture of the life I always dreamed of—the fairytale ending put off for far too long, lying dormant while waiting for us to find our way back together.
Peeking up at him, I blinked away the tears and gave a decisive nod. “Take me home, Tuck.”
He cupped my face with trembling hands as his eyes slid closed a beat before reopening. “You sure?”
“It’s where I belong. With you,” I whispered before pressing my lips to his.
When we broke apart, his blue eyes sparkled, and the biggest grin split his face. “Then, let’s go home.”
Leaning into his side, I walked out of Brooks and Andrews, closing a chapter of my life that had merely been a placeholder while I killed time in anticipation of this moment, even if I hadn’t realized it was coming.
Tucker represented my painful past but also my bright future. If possible, our love had grown deeper after all we’d been through. The obstacles had made us stronger, more resilient, and now it was time to claim our reward.
A beautiful life together.
Epilogue
