Page 102 of Make it Real
“What are these?”
I spread them out. Each one had a drawing of a different house front and back, with a floor plan laid out in tiny grids. A Craftsman with an ornate entry, a modern one-level with a sloped roof, a farmhouse with a wraparound front porch and full-length back porch.
“I need your opinion. I think it’s time I put a house on the property, but I wasn’t sure which one you’d like best. I have a hunch, but I need to be sure.”
I looked up at him, that fluttery feeling in my heart turning into a banging drum. He gave me a small, hopeful smile that careened through me, zapping all my tender spots from my head to my toes.
“You want my opinion on your house?”
“Yeah. Only, I want it to be your house, too.”
I couldn’t speak—I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. I could only manage to listen and stare.
“I realized I hate the quiet when you’re not around. I miss how you snort when you laugh. I miss the way you always jump in heart first. I miss the way you love with everything you have. I miss my girlfriend.”
He moved a tiny step closer, like a question, and I answered by taking my own step toward him. He took hold of my fingers in that sweet little gesture I’d come to love.
“I don’t know if you need me, Callie, but I sure as hell need you. Turns out, I love you. I think I loved you from the beginning, it just took me a while to realize it. And yeah, we started out in a pretend relationship, but there’s nothing I want more than to make it real.”
Did he just—did Jed Evans just tell me he loved me?
I launched myself at him, throwing my arms around his shoulders and kissing his face, his jaw, his mouth. And boy, oh boy, did he ever kiss me back. His hands made a slow map of my back while he absolutely ruined me with the kiss, my body turning to mush in his arms.
I was so thoroughly his, I didn’t know how I’d ever thought we wouldn’t wind up here.
I broke the kiss, and if he could see the hearts in my eyes, so be it. “Obviously, I want the farmhouse with the big back porch.”
His mouth tipped up. “Called it.”
I drew my hands up to cup his face. “And I love you, too. I am embarrassingly, completely in love with you. I said I wouldn’t fall for you, but I did.”
His smile stretched wide. “I forgive you.”
I rolled my eyes at his teasing. “I just told my granny we’re not together. Seems no matter what I do, I end up lying to my gran.”
He tilted his face closer to mine. “Then you’d better call her back, because we are together. I’m in this for the long haul, Callie.”
Oh, Gran would have a field day when she found out her prediction had come true.
Jed’s smile dimmed a touch, but his hands stayed locked on my waist. “I’ve never done the long haul before. I think I’ve been afraid to look to the future, feeling I didn’t deserve these extra years when people I loved didn’t get the same.”
I stroked a hand along his temple, and he leaned into it in a move of such tenderness, my heart squeezed all over again. I loved my sweet man’s gentle soul.
“We can do everything as slowly as you want to,” he said. “You’re still the captain. Of the house, the relationship, the…everything.”
His eyes heated, and my belly dipped in response.Everythingsounded good to me.
“But I want a future with you,” he went on. “Days and months and years of it. As much as you’ll give me.”
“I want that, too. But I have one condition.”
His resolute little nod sent sparkles over my skin. “Name it.”
“We co-captain all the ships.”
He grinned and bent down to kiss me again. “Co-captains, it is.”
epilogue
