She blinks hard. “Because I’ve always been last,” she replies, more tears forming in her eyes. “I’ve never been chosen first. Everything in my life has revolved around my family. I love them so much, I do. But when I finally think I have something that’s justmine, you…”
I pull her against my chest, wrapping my arms tightly around her while she cries. “I don’t care about them,” I whisper against her hair. “I care only so much that they’re your family. You love them, so I do, too. But you willalwaysbe my first choice, Lydia.You are the only choice I can make that I know isright. Because I love you.”
That’s the only truth I can really offer her now, and I pray she’ll believe them. Because she’s the only thing I’ll ever need again.
TEN
LYDIA
Cade’s words replay in my head over and over again as I pull back to meet his eye. Once a master of hiding his true emotions, he’s now stripped bare to give me insight into the man he really is.
The man who claims to love me.
Nothing in his crystal-blue eyes tells me he’s lying. For the first time since overhearing his conversation, I actually believe every word out of his mouth. He loves me. And I…
I love him, too.
It strikes me so suddenly I find it hard to suck in air. The feeling crashes hard into my chest, shattering the rest of my resolve into a thousand pieces. If I wanted to pull it back together, I would never be able to find all the pieces.
Because they belonged to him.
I rise onto my toes and kiss him hard, sliding my arms around his neck. The surprised sound he makes in the back of his throat rushes through me, making my belly flutter as his arms tighten around me. Cade’s tongue slides between my lips, deepening the kiss, but out of instinct, I fight against him.
The next sound he makes has need pooling between my thighs. It’s just the right shock of reality I need to pull away, tosuck in smoke-tinged air and try to calm the racing of my heart. “I love you,” I reply, meeting his stare.
Relief flares in his eyes as he drops kisses to my cheeks, the corners of my mouth, my nose. “You love me,” he murmurs, dropping his forehead to mine. “Fuck. I never thought I’d hear those words.”
A shudder rolls down my spine. “We need to figure this out, though,” I murmur, closing my eyes. “What your aunt wants. What you’re going to do next.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing now,” he says, taking me by surprise. “I’ll call Tobias. He’ll tell me the truth as he knows it. And then we can decide whether we ask my aunt. But regardless of what happens, I’m done with the company. Hell, I’ll drop the Abernathy name now if you want me to. I’m not going back to New York, and I’m not leaving you.”
Those words have warmth flaring in my chest and hope curling around my still-racing heart. When I open my eyes again, I find him staring at me with reverence, the look in his eyes taking my breath away. “You mean it?”
“Yeah.” From his back pocket, he pulls out his cell. “No reception. But come with me to the office. We’ll call Tobias back and get to the bottom of this. I promise.”
It takes onlya few moments for Cade’s friend—and my technical boss—to accept the video call. I sit awkwardly on Cade’s lap, suddenly all too aware of myself in that way girls who look like me do, except my mountain man doesn’t seem to care much as he has one arm around my waist, the other drumming nervously on the desk in front of us.
The screen goes from dark to revealing the New York skyline. My breath catches in my throat as I take in the city, staring at the skyscrapers that make up Cade’s old world.
It’s hard to believe that’s where he once came from. That this is the life he once lived. But as I glance down at my mountain man, scarred from a fire that rocked our entire town, I can reconcile that he isn’t the same man he once was.
The screen shifts as a man suddenly appears. He’s the total opposite of Cade; neatly trimmed dark brown hair gelled back from his face, the hint of dimples in his freshly shaven cheeks, and serious dark eyes that immediately find mine.
“Lydia Sterling, I take it,” he says, scanning my face before taking the rest of me in—and how I look sitting on his lap. “And I guess I now understand the change of mind.”
“You knew I was never going back,” Cade replies, though he’s not as tense as his friend. “But we need to know why you wanted in with Lydia’s father.”
Tobias flinches, and the facade of big name lawyer slips briefly as he runs a hand through his hair. “You really don’t want to know,” he says, releasing a harsh breath. “Trust me. It isn’t worth it.”
“I need to know,” I tell him. “Please.”
His gaze flickers to mine, Cade’s hold on me tightening. “Will leaving my aunt now come back to bite me in the ass? You owe me that much, man,” my mountain man adds.
Tobias’s jaw ticks, but he relents. “Look, it’s about land,” he says finally, sitting back and pulling the mask of lawyer back over his face. “She wants something in Willow Ridge. Land, I’m assuming.Sterlingland, if I had to place a bet.”
My stomach sinks. “My father—mybrothers—will not give up our land. Never again.”
“She won’t get it,” Cade murmurs, taking my hand entwining our fingers. “I won’t let her.”
