"Vermont, maybe," I replied with a shrug. "Acevedo likes inventing his own trails."
"Go. Wash." She pointed toward the bathroom. "The sauce needs a little more time."
I reached for her hand, closed it in both of mine. "I'm sorry."
Her eyelids drooped, her shoulders rising and falling as she exhaled. "You don't need to say that. You did nothing wrong and I—"
"We made plenty of mistakes. Both of us." I stroked my thumb over her knuckles, offered a small smile. "We'll talk about it when I'm not covered in trail funk, okay?"
Stella nodded, repeating, "Go. Wash." And then, "I'll be here when you're finished. I'm not going anywhere."
I knew hearts didn't swell, not outside cardiomegaly. I knew hearts only seemed to lodge in one's throat and only while experiencing severe palpitations. I knew the organ's every corner and flutter. And I knew love didn't live in the heart, didn't start there and didn't grow there.
But I knew Stella owned mine.
I wasunder the shower's hot spray no more than two minutes before Stella threw back the curtain and joined me. She said nothing, asked nothing, only stepped inside and wrapped her soft around my hard.
She rested her head between my shoulder blades, clasped her arms over my torso. I layered my hands over hers. We stayed there, twined together as the water pounded down on us and the steam rose.
Eventually, she said, "I want us to be the people who collided at the pond. I want us to be open and honest and not afraid of a single thing. Except demented raccoons."
"It was a beaver."
She groaned her disagreement into my skin. Then, "I want us to be the people we were that morning. When we shared that scone and almost agreed to forever because—because it felt right."
I turned, took her into my arms, tucked her head under my chin. "I am sorry and you do deserve an apology." When she started to object, I cupped her chin and pressed my thumb to her lips. "The way I left, it wasn't right."
"I would've done the same thing," she mumbled against my thumb.
"You told me how it was," I continued, using that thumb to trace her plump lips. "I knew and I didn't have the stones to tell you I didn't like it."
"And I didn't have the big girl panties to end it with them," she added. "I need you to believe me when I say you're the only one, Cal. Even before that day with the crazy raccoon—"
"Beaver," I said under my breath. "It was a beaver, Stel."
"—I hadn't seen any of them for weeks. You were the only one then and you're the only one now." She glanced up at me, her cheeks wet. "My phone is unlocked and you can read anything you want at any time and it wasn't a beaver—"
I kissed her. I dragged my hands across her shoulders, down the line of her spine, over her ass cheeks. Squeezed them both. I ran my knuckles between her legs but only for a quick moment. She responded with a gasp, a thin, breathy sound that went straight to my cock. I didn't think I had an ounce of energy left after the overexertion of this evening but somehow my body was ready to demolish this woman.
Mywoman.
"You're mine," I whispered against her lips. "You belong to me, Stella."
She pushed up on her toes, caught my lower lip between her teeth. Nipped, hummed, turned my cock to stone. "You belong to me."
I reached for her breasts, covered her nipples with my thumbs. "We're not doing this here," I announced. "The water will run cold and your skin will shrivel before I'm done with you tonight. And don't think I'm stopping with one night. You still need to marry me." I bent down, closed my teeth around the underside of her breast and then delivered the same treatment to the other side. "Yes?"
Stella stared at me, her lips parted. "Yes," she answered. "Andyes."
Epilogue
Stella
I saidyesbut we waited a year to sayI do.
There was a hot second when eloping sounded awesome but then we realized we didn't want to rush this part. We had the rest of our lives to be married.
But there was one thing we rushed. One precious, little thing we were keeping to ourselves until after returning from the honeymoon.
