“You know, I don’t think so. But I’m not sure what’s going to take its place. Oh, and Dad’s throwing me out of our house. So I don’t have anywhere to live either.” I laugh to myself. I’m nearly thirty and about to have nowhere to live and no job.
Jack shifts so he’s facing me. “You want to stay in Colorado?” he asks, urgency in his tone.
“I don’t know. I haven’t really had time to think about it.” I sweep raindrops from his brows. “All I know is that I want you. Do you want to stay in New York?”
“I want to be anywhere you are.”
His words melt in my chest like ice against a flame. I nod. “Same.”
“I should have never ended things,” Jack says. “I’ve been so stupid. I thought it was for the best. That I was being selfish by trying to figure out a life together. I thought I’d be asking you to make too many compromises. My mother said I was selfish, that you’d face too much nastiness back in New York. Too much gossip and sniping.”
I shake my head. “You should have talked to me, Jack. I’m a fully grown adult and I get to decide the compromises I’m prepared to make. Not you.”
He huffs out of half laugh. “Yes,” he says. “You’re right.” His shoulders drop like he’s just thrown off some of his burden. “It won’t happen again. I’ll never let you go. If you’re unhappy, I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy.”
I know Jack to his bones and I know he means what he’s saying. I don’t doubt him. I don’t doubt us.
“So if you’re not tied to Colorado… this means…” He takes my hand. “I’m not sure what this means.”
“I’m not sure either. But even if I don’t have to work on the farm, I’m still a small-town girl from Colorado who’s never going to be from a family with the right connections.”
“I don’t care about any of that stuff, and now I don’t care what mymotherthinks about any of that stuff. Or any of New York society. None of it matters here in Colorado. We can stay protected from it all right here.” He shifts closer to me. “I thought I could go back to New York and eventually forget you. I knew how I felt about you, but I thought I could get on with my life and I could get back to normal. One day. Now I know that’s impossible.
“You’ve changed me.
“It’s like I’ve been cracked open and reborn. There’s no going back.
“I can’t go back.
“Iwon’tgo back.
“Nothing my mother or New York society can say will change that. If New York doesn’t want you, as perfect as you are, then I don’t want New York. We’ll build a life together in Colorado.”
“Your mother said New York wouldn’t want me?”
Jack shrugs. “She said a lot of things that don’t matter.” I think he might understand her concerns if he talks to her and she tells him the truth. “What does matter isI want you. Wherever you are. Whatever you’re doing. If I’m with you, nothing else matters.”
My heart feels so full that my entire chest might explode.
Jack came back to me.
And he’s back for good.
He lifts me up and I wrap my legs around his waist, gazing down at him as he holds me. “I’ll follow you wherever you want to go.” I press a kiss to his lips.
His gaze darts from my eyes to my lips and back up again. “I’m so in love with you.”
“The feeling’s mutual.”
Our lips crash together and finally I feel like I’m home.
I’ve lived in Star Falls, in the same family home, since I’ve been born… but I never feel more at home than I do when I’m with Jack.
We fit perfectly together. Soul mates. My entire heart. The love of my life.
“I love you,” I say between breathy kisses.
“I love you too,” he says on a groan. “Will you ever forgive me for letting you go?”
