A quick grin tipped up the corner of his mouth. Christ, he loved this girl. “That too, but this isn’t about that.”
“No? What’s it about?” She seemed to hold her breath, her eyes darting back and forth between his as she completely ignored the hoots and calls of congratulations to the acting mayor.
“I’ve got something I need to ask you again. And I’m gonna keep askin’ because you’re not the only pigheaded one in this duo.” He cupped her face and brushed his thumbs over her cheeks, darting his eyes over her face. Attempting to memorize every eyelash, every freckle, every gold fleck in her irises and tuck them away for when he’d need them the most. “I’ve never stopped wantin’ you, Kenna. Not a day since I’ve been gone. And I won’t stop. Not for the rest of my life.”
She reached out and tucked her fingers into his jeans pockets, not tugging him closer, but not letting him put even an inch of distance between them.
He took that as encouragement and continued, “And I think we both know I’ll never stop lovin’ you. I’d give anything to have you by my side, but I understand that you can’t do that right now. I see how important you are to this town. To your family. I know how much you’re needed here. But I need you too. I need you as much as I need air. Bein’ home, bein’ here with you, feels like I’ve taken a deep breath for the first time in ten years.”
Kenna’s eyes shone, their glassiness reflecting the hanging lights on a nearby tent. “Hud…”
“I know you need to stay, but we can still be together, Kenna. Even if we’re a thousand miles apart. Even if we’rethreethousand miles apart. Couples do it every day, and there’s no way they’re as stubborn and determined as we are. So, I’m askin’ again. Hell, I’m beggin’, and you know I’d never admit that to anyone but you.”
She huffed out a laugh and then seemed to hold her breath, waiting for the next words to come out of his mouth.
“Be with me,” he said. “In however that takes shape, for however long you’ll have me. Just be with me.”
She didn’t answer with words. Instead, she lifted up on her tiptoes, gripped his neck, and brought his face down to hers. Their lips met, then parted, their tongues sliding against each other, and he’d never tasted anything sweeter in all of his life. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he lifted her up against him as their mouths stayed fused together, their bodies as close as they could get in public without getting themselves arrested.
Christ, what he wouldn’t give to be inside her once more before he had to leave. But time already wasn’t in their favor, and he knew that once he got lost in her body, there was no telling when he’d come up for air. He only hoped her reaction meant he’d have plenty more chances in the future to cover her body with his, sink into the heaven between those beautiful thighs, and settle into the home she provided him within her body and her mind and her heart.
Holding her against him so her feet dangled a foot above the ground, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Is that a yes?”
“No,” she said, cupping his face, her thumbs tracing the five-o’clock shadow that had sprouted up since he’d shaved off his beard that morning.
Hudson’s stomach dropped, his eyes flicking between hers as he tried to read her, but he couldn’t decipher anything from her stare.
And then she pressed their mouths together and murmured against his, “It’s a hell yes.”
“Yousuck.” He nipped her bottom lip, laving the sting with his tongue, too lost in the sound of her laugh to stay mad at her for almost giving him a fucking heart attack.
She smiled before it slipped from her face, her expression sobering. “I need you as much as you need me. And I’ve been an idiot, thinkin’ we can’t make this work. You’re right—wearestubborn. And if anyone can do this, it’s us. I have faith in us. In you.” She glanced down, her voice lowering to just above a whisper. “And for the first time in a long time, I have faith in me, too.”
Hudson’s chest filled with pride for his girl—his best friend, his soul mate, his Kenna—so thankful she finally had as much trust in herself as everyone else did. He kissed her again, needing to fill his well with as much of it as he could to last him for the coming months they’d be apart.
After not nearly long enough with their lips melded together, their tongues twined, CB jumped up on Hudson’s legs, barking her little head off and proving exactly why he’d named her that in the first place.
He pulled back, holding Kenna up against him by a handful of her ass and not caring in the least that dozens of Havenbrook residents were watching their every move.
She glanced down at the barking dog before meeting his gaze, her lip caught between her teeth. “What’re you gonna do with CB?”
“Well…I needed to talk to you about that. I was sorta hopin’ you wouldn’t be opposed to a roommate.”
“And you thought you’d wait until now to spring that on me?”
He shrugged, unrepentant. “I knew you wouldn’t say no that way.”
“Liar.” She leaned close and scraped her teeth against his bottom lip. “You knew I wouldn’t say no, period.”
“That too.”
She threaded her fingers through the short hair at the back of his head, her expression serious. “I love you, you know. And I need you to come back to me.”
He swallowed hard, knowing he’d do every fucking thing in his power to do just that. To return home to her. To marry her and have babies with her and grow old with her. “I love you too, Kenna.”
It’d taken them too damn long to get there, but sometimes the best things took a little extra time. And if he got Kenna when it was all said and done, he didn’t care what sort of winding, convoluted path he had to travel if she was waiting for him at the end.
“So, we’re really doin’ this?” he asked.
