Page 105 of Ridin' True
“Great. She asked about you. Wanted to make sure you were still comin’ Saturday.”
“Did you tell her I wouldn’t miss it? Because I wouldn’t.”
“I told her,” he assured me as he propped himself up with one palm atop the kitchen island. “Saw your boxes in the garage,” he segued, changing the subject. “Thought you’d bring more.”
I sat aside the tea towel and took a step toward him.
“I know you told me you have plenty of room for my things, but it seemed silly to crowd your garage or your basement only to move it all out again when I find a new place.”
“Why bother findin’ a new place when you could just move in here?”
Rather than the sensation of my insides defying gravity, it felt more like gravity itself ceased to exist as his question hung suspended between us.
“Excuse me?” I barely managed.
“I’m sayin’, move in with me, gorgeous.”
I had to grab hold of the lip of the counter to maintain my balance.
“Jed—papi, that’s—that’s crazy. You can’t mean that.”
“Crazy?” He quirked an eyebrow at me, as if I was the one who wasn’t making sense. “Lex, what’s the point in furnishin’ a place you’ll only sleep at part time? Not to mention, payin’ rent there when you’re gonna want an office space soon. Way I see it, that’d be too leases drainin’ your bank account. And for what?”
“For what? Jed, this is yourhome. You live here with your children. My being here is a temporary arrangement. We’ve been together for amonth. We can’tmove intogether. And I certainly don’t want to live with you because it’s financiallypractical. When we move in together, I want it to be because we’re in love and you—you want me here, not just because it makes sense.”
“Well, aren’t we?”
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it.
He couldn’t have been saying what I thought he was saying.
“Aren’t we what?”
He got close. Real close. Close enough that when I drew in a breath, I smelled the faint traces of sandalwood, leather, and smoke on his skin. He took my chin in his grasp and tilted my head back, until I had nowhere else to look but into his blue-green eyes.
“In love, darlin’,” he answered.
I let go of the counter in order to reach for either side of his kutte as all the air left my lungs.
“What?” I whispered.
“Far as I’m concerned, I’m lookin’ at my ol’ lady. A week, a month, a year—Lex, another decade wouldn’t make a bit of difference. I plan on marryin’ you and puttin’ babies in you one day. Until that time comes, we can live apart if you insist—but I know what I want, and that’s you. In this house.”
By the time he was finished speaking, I could barely see him, my vision blurred by the tears that had begun to pool in my eyes.
“What?”
It was, quite literally, the only word I could find in my brain.
Jed chuckled. “Still so damn cute.”
“You—you love me?” I squeaked, as my tears began to fall.
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes,” I breathed without a hint of hesitation.
He reared his head back as a scowl tugged at his brow.
