He shook his head, a wide grin on his lips. “You just got back here. Are you that eager to leave already?”
“Yes. I’d go now if I thought I wouldn’t drop out of the sky like a lead weight.”
Wyatt chuckled. “Don’t let your mom hear you talking like that. Where is she, anyway?”
“I sent her away. She was driving me crazy with all her fussing.”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “She’s been worried about you, plus she hasn’t seen you in a year. Let her fuss.”
“You do not know how my mother gets when she fusses,” she said, with a shudder. “How are you, anyway? Where have you been?”
Wyatt told Amelia all about his visit with Everly and his mom.
“I can’t believe Everly and Lanyon are Axel’s parents.”
“Do you know them well?” Wyatt asked.
She nodded. “I used to babysit Missy for them when she was little, and they went on hunting trips. Missy is a riot.”
“Yeah? I can’t wait to meet her.”
Amelia searched his face carefully, but he didn’t feel uncomfortable under her scrutiny. In fact, he was thinking about leaning close and pressing his lips against hers, hisbodyagainst hers, when she spoke.
“Wyatt, are you sure you’re okay with leaving here? I mean, when we talked about it back in Miami, you said you didn’t know if you would have ever left here if you hadn’t been banished. Now that you can stay…”
“Don’t even concern yourself with that thought,” Wyatt said. “My life is in Miami now, and it’s a good life. It will be even better with you in it. If I had only been gone for a year or two then perhaps I would feel differently right now, but after fifty years out in the world, there is no way I could come back here to live full time.”
“You’re sure? I don’t want you to feel like I’m pushing you into something you don’t want to do, just because I don’t want to live here anymore.”
“I’m positive, and you’re not pushing me into anything. I promise you that. I’ve got everything I could ever need or want in Miami. A good job, a nice house, amazing friends, and soon I’ll have you, too.”
“Well, when you put it like that...”
He bent forward and stole a kiss; just a brief, chaste brush of their lips.
“And what do you mean, soon,” she murmured as he pulled away. “You already have me.”
A fresh grin spread across his face and he captured her hand, holding it close to his chest. “And you, me,” he murmured.
They said nothing for a moment, basking in each other’s presence, until Wyatt broke the silence. “Now that the banishment has been lifted, we can come back to visit whenever we want. And our families can visit us. Actually, I’m planning to make Everly, Lanyon, and Missy the same offer, if it’s okay with you.”
“Totally.”
“They were good to me when I was growing up, they treated me like I was another son and even though they could so easily have blamed me for Axel’s death, they didn’t. I don’t know if they’ll ever take me up on the offer, but I want to make it, anyway.”
Amelia gave Wyatt’s hand a squeeze and then sighed dreamily. “I’m so lucky,” she said.
“What? Why?”
“I could so easily have been mated to a possessive jerk like Silas who would think nothing of trying to murder me in my sleep, but I got you instead—someone who put my life above his own. I really lucked out.” Then she scowled fiercely at him. “But don’t ever do that again.”
“Do what again?”
“Put your life in danger just to save mine.”
“Babe, I’ll always do that,” he said. “Despite the fact that you could kick my ass seven ways to Sunday.”
Her scowl turned into a blindingly beautiful grin. “And don’t you forget it.”
