Page 59 of Crocodile Tears
“Deacon,” she admonished with a little grumble. “This was incredible, but we need to be realistic.”
“I am being realistic.”
“But—”
“No buts.” I kissed her pouting lips until she was smiling again.
“I’m not trying to run away, but I have to go home and you have a life that needs to keep rolling on without me.”
There were no two words I hated more than the way she said “without me.” I knew it was a lot to ask of her. I knew my life was a lot to take on. But if anyone could handle it, it was Dove Lachlan. I held her tighter, as if my arms were trying to prove to her that I wasn’t going to let her go.
“My life can wait right now,” I pushed. “Let’s focus on the zoo first. I’m coming with you.” Dove opened her mouth to protest,and I sat up fully. “Dove, I meant what I said last night. You and me. I’m all in.”
“But you have work,” she protested.
“I’ll cancel it.”
“Deacon!”
“Dove!” I mocked. “Let me take you home. I have nothing big going on this week. I’ll have Luca shift things around, and next Sunday we’ll make a game plan, okay?”
Finally, she relented, collapsing back down against me. “And you call me stubborn.” I grinned victoriously as her eyes drifted to the guitar in the corner of the room. “Do you ever still write?”
“Sometimes,” I hedged. “Not that I’ll do anything with the songs. It’s just a hobby now.”
Her bedroom eyes lifted to me. “Do you want it just to be a hobby now?”
“When it comes to my career, it doesn’t matter what I want.”
“Of course it does! It should matter more than anything,” she argued. “What do you want?”
I sighed. “I want to make movies that mean something to me, I guess,” I confessed. “And I want to start making music again. I want to spend less time working and more time on the things I love.”
“And what things do you love?”
“Searching for treasure on the beach, binge-watching episodes ofDimension 20, texting my best friend that I saw someone that looked exactly like the grumpy petting zoo llama . . .”
“Garrett.”
“That’s the one.” I chuckled. “I want to do all the things I love with the person I love.”
Her lips curved. “And who is that person?”
“She’s a Russian supermodel,” I teased wistfully.
Dove’s wandering fingertips stalled. “Oh.”
“Thatwas a joke,” I said, recapturing her hand. “I realize now that was terrible timing. I was talking about you, if that wasn’t clear. I’ve been madly in love with you since I first saw you at ten years old. I’ve been in love with you longer than I’d known what love is, and I never stopped.”
“Well, I wish I could say the same,” she lamented, and my heart sunk for a second. “And I can because I’ve been madly in love with you since I was ten years old too.”
She let out a squeak as I rolled over until I was pinning her into the mattress, kissing her deeply. “We are just as bad as each other,” I said with a laugh. I lifted up to search her eyes, wanting to tumble into her gaze as I said, “I love you.”
“I love you,” she echoed, reaching up to pull me back into another kiss.
She loved me. And with that thought, everything in the world felt complete.
Chapter Thirty
