“Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be back soon.” He says quietly, and Collins turns back to him, holding out her hand. He doesn’t hesitate to take it, giving it a soft squeeze.
“I can’t believe you’re his dad. It feels like luck, in a way.” She smiles as she releases his hand.
Dad shakes his head, “I hope you know that we are the lucky ones, Sunshine. I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
“Please,” Collins says, and my heart trips over itself.
With one last nod, he slips from the room with a soft smile and a knowing look on his face. When it’s just the two of us, I lean back just enough to cup her face and duck down until we’re at eye level.
“Dad’s right, you know.Weare the lucky ones, and youarefamily, baby.Myfamily. Always have been.” I give her a lopsided grin, hoping to lighten her somber mood. “It’s just a little different now. And little bigger too,” I murmur against her hair, thinking about Bear, Ayla, Riley, my dad, even Blair. I guess we can even count the fucking barbarian that is Jett, too, since she’s so fond of him.
Shit,even Lachlan and his brothers seem to have taken a protective stance over her as well. I remember when Callan had told me that she was considered family, as Asher had become family to them.
Leaning back to look at her, I swipe at the stray tears that have fallen down her cheeks. It guts me to my core to see her in such pain, such disbelief that she’s so much more important to us—tome—than she ever could’ve imagined.
“You know,” I hedge, feeling the reckless impulse to confess my thoughts and feelings. It’s hypocritical, given how I told her to wait until we were home, but I can’t adhere to that. Collinsmore than deserves some clarity. She deserves to know what she means to me.
“I’ve always cared about you. Caredforyou. I hated myself for so long for being that young idiot who ultimately fucked everything up when it came to you. But two years ago, something changed,“ I say, tapping my temple, “up here. With that last Polaroid you sent with your letter, something shifted here, too, ” I murmur, tapping over my heart.
Collins’ eyes are glued to me, her brilliant mind latching onto every word as she listens with rapt attention while I spill my secrets to her. Reaching for my wallet, I pull out the picture, the same one I’ve carried with me everywhere for over two years now. It’s a little worn, and creasing mars some of the edges of the image, but it does nothing to hinder the beauty of the photo.
Her eyes round in shock as I place it in her trembling hand. “One look at that photo and I was no longer looking at Asher’s baby sister. I was staring at my fucking future. It wasn’t just finding you again that had become an obsession. It wasyou, Stardust.You were the one thing I needed. The one thing I had no idea I was missing. One thing I had to fucking have. To possess. To take and break and mold you to me until we fit together in a way that onlywecould.”
She stares at me in shock as I run my fingers through her hair before cupping the side of her neck gently. “And when we got you back? Those feelings only grew as they morphed into something else. Somewhere along the way,” I say, locking eyes with her, “I fell in love. Not with my best friend’s little sister, but a woman who is the epitome of resilience, strength, and beauty.”
I don’t regret spilling the words now that they’re free. Telling her now doesn’t dampen the verity of my feelings, and now that I’ve spoken my truth out loud, I’m going to tell her a thousand times a day so she’ll never misunderstand the magnitude of just how fucking crazy I am about her.
Riley, too, when we get him out of here.
Collins clamps a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking as big tears spill over her lashes. She graces me with the most breathtaking smile, and I can’t explain just how much I love that I’m the man who put it there. “You really love me? Like,love me,love me?”
I smile at that.This girl.“Yeah, baby.” I lean forward and draw her lips to mine. “I really fuckin’ do.”
She laughs, her own hands cupping my cheeks, keeping our foreheads pressed together. “Thank God,”she teases, biting her lip, and I swear I’m trying to be on my best behavior and not bite into it myself. “Because I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t head over heels for you, Creed.”
Clever, clever girl. She didn’t say the words, but I can still feel the magnitude of her feelings for me and my soul fucking sings for her.
Because shestillloves me.
I’ll spend every day proving to her that I am deserving of such a gift.
I look forward to the day that I do hear her say it back.
A puzzling look takes over her brows, and it’s so adorable it makes me chuckle softly. “What’s that look for, Stardust?”
A fierce blush creeps its way up Collins’ cheeks and down her chest as she stares at her hands in her lap and picks at her freshly painted nails. She doesn’t answer at first, so I tilt her chin up to me with the crook of my finger. When her eyes meet mine, I can see the question sitting right on the edge of her lips.
Finally, she whispers it with vulnerability and curiosity consuming her gaze. “Only me?”
At first, I want to laugh because no way in hell would I even look at another woman, let alone ever love another woman the way I love her. I’d never even been in love before Collins.
But then, it hits me.
The question isn’t about whether I’ve loved other people before. It’s for someone else. One in particular. Namely, another man with auburn hair, dark eyes, and so painfully sweet that he makes my teeth ache. Our Riley Benjamin.
My relationship with Riley had always been a very relaxed sort of friendship, and one that was a little outside of social norms with the amount of affection I showed him publicly. But about a month before everything went to shit, it felt like something had shifted between the two of us.
Riley was no stranger to my kisses against his temples, his cheeks, or to the tip of his nose. It was on par for the two of us, but the first time he let me really kiss him? The way his lips felt against mine? I knew in that exact moment that it was right. That becoming more wasright.
