Shit.
In focusing so hard on fixing things with Harper, I’d fucked things up with Rory. He’d just opened up about what kept him away fromrelationships too, and he was understandably skittish. I’d figured early on in knowing him that he felt and he felt deeply.
And I didn’t want to be the cause of pain for him. Not now, not ever.
I tipped my head back and sucked in a breath, even though I wanted to get out of the car and run. Where to, I wasn’t sure, but the urge to move, to fix things, to do something pulsed through my veins.
Harper rapped at my window, and I rolled it down. Her dark eyes looked concerned, which set off my warning bells. “August said he already dropped off the supplies. That he was heading back to their house.”
“Dammit.” My stomach sank. Of course Rory had bolted.
Harper crossed her arms and gave me an arched brow look. “You know what you have to do. Go after him.”
I shook my head, a slow grin rising to my lips. My daughter’s determination fueled me even more. “I’m lucky you’re my kid.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t be sappy. Just go lock that shit up. Love you, though.”
“Love you too,” I said. “Get home safe.” With that, I rolled up the window and started the engine again.
The last text Rory had sent was all I needed to get me where I was supposed to be.
By his side.
I pulled up out front of a house right outside of Kennett proper.
The lights glowed from the window, and Rory’s car sat in the driveway, which calmed my nerves at once. Maybe I should be panicking, but a serene peace settled over me in the wake of Harper giving usher blessing. Rory might’ve run scared, but I could handle that. He’d brought so much light into my life over the past month, and I wasn’t ready to let him go.
And if he was scared, there was hope the feelings that bubbled within me resounded in him too.
All he had to do was let me in.
I turned off my engine and hopped out of my truck, my heart thumping hard in anticipation.
God, I needed to see him, craved him like my next breath. We might’ve just fucked in the woods, but already I was insatiable. I couldn’t get enough of his cries, his sweet surrender as he melted against me.
Even more than that, I longed for his presence, the bright energy he brought with him wherever he went. After so many years of going through the motions, I needed that more than ever.
I stopped in front of his door, lifted my hand, and knocked.
The silence on the other side was agonizing, my adrenaline rushing faster, harder.
The thump of footsteps reached my ears, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
The door creaked open, and Rory stood in the doorway.
His eyes bled caution, but he looked as fucking delicious as before, his dark hair rumpled, those lush lips purely kissable. The urge to close the distance and claim them rose in a real way, but the guardedness in his shoulders held me back.
“Come to deliver a singing telegram?” Rory joked, even though the delivery was flat. “Fling was great, had one date, now that itch is sate…ed. Okay, so I’m not the best at rhyming.”
My chest squeezed tight, and I clutched the doorframe, my foot halfway inside. “What made you think this was a fling?”
“Please,” Rory said, attempting to be blasé. Except I caught the tremble of his arms.
That had me closing the distance between us. I wrapped my arms around him and crushed him to my chest. “Baby, you were never a fling for me.”
Rory’s whole body shook, and the slightest bit of wetness imprinted on my shirt, but I didn’t say anything, not wanting to scare him away. He clearly felt more intensely than most, and I found that fucking beautiful.
Since he was processing, I took the time to continue, even if we stood in the middle of his entryway, the cold air dumping into the house. “Harper being there threw me for a curveball, and I was so focused on clarifying the situation with her that I didn’t realize how that might’ve come across. She knows now, though, and she’s not upset.”
