I pulled my hands away from his eyes. “Look.”
It took a moment, but I knew the second he saw. His whole body reacted, and then he stilled. After a beat, he glanced over his shoulder. “You did this?”
“Depends on if you like it.”
“Are you kidding, Archer?” he said, voice filled with those sentiments I’d been feeling before. “It’s perfect.” He rushed forward, hands going to the thick, knotted bark covering the massive trunk of the oak.
Tucking my hands in my pockets, I moved forward, standing just behind him and watching his fingers trace the letters I’d carved.
A + T
“It’s just like Hershel and Beatrice,” he said quietly.
I hummed in agreement. “It’s their tree… but it’s ours now too.”
He turned quickly, plowing into me so fast that I rocked back on my heels. Closing my arms around him, I held him tight just as I’d wanted to do for so very long. One hand lifted to palm the back of his head, pressing him even closer, as I looked at our freshly carved letters in the tree.
“We’re forever,” I whispered. “Just like them.”
Toby pulled back. “This is the best gift anyone has ever given me.”
I must have looked doubtful because he gripped my face. “Your heart will always be my favorite.”
“I’m glad you like it,” I said because I couldn’t seem to manage anything else.
“I love it,” he said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and turning to take about a hundred photos of the trunk. “Now us,” he said, gesturing for me to come closer.
“You mean the five hundred you just took weren’t enough?”
“We weren’t in any of them.”
I pursed my lips.
“Archer Hodge, get your sexy ass over here and take a photo with your boyfriend.”
“Well, when you put it like that…” I said, going over instantly.
“Here.” He thrust the phone at me. When I did nothing, he pouted. “Your arm is longer than mine.”
And just like that, I learned I was wrapped tightly around his little finger because I would literally do anything for that pout.
“Fine.” I sighed, taking the phone and snapping about ten selfies of us with the initials in the background.
“I’m printing these out. Framing one,” he said, hugging the phone to his chest. Bouncing forward, he pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “Thank you, Archer.”
“I have something else for you,” I said, nervous all over again.
His eyes rounded. “You do?”
Reaching into the pocket of my jeans, I pulled out a long red ribbon with something metal on the end and held it out.
“A key?”
I nodded. “It’s to the main house.”
“Archer—”
“I know, okay. We just made it official. We’re brand new. But the way I love you is anything but. You don’t even have to use it if you don’t want. At least not right away. But I want you to have it, to know that you are always welcome anywhere I am. That you always have a place with me. This is your home now, at least until I can build us a place that’s all our own.”
