“And ask for my hand?” I tease.
He chuckles. “Not yet.”
“Cody! Don’t you dare ever ask Jace for my hand in marriage.”
He laughs a full laugh. “I’ll ask your dad when the time comes.”
“Good. I can only imagine how Jace would handle that. He’d probably make you go through some sort of challenge course, the likes of which you’ve never seen. If you can reach the gauntlet, you win me like some prize sow.”
Cody laughs hard. “I’m a firefighter. I’ve run the gauntlet. I say, bring it.”
“No.”
“Okay. Okay.” He kisses the top of my head. “But you’re good with us telling everyone after the wedding?”
“I’m so ready to tell everyone. I think it almost slipped to McKenna twice and my mom once.”
“I’ll miss this,” he says, tugging me close.
“Hanging out in the back of our pickups?”
“Yeah.”
“Who says we have to stop?”
A smile spreads across his face. “I like that. We can still sneak out here. No one needs to know.”
“Yeah. It’s our spot.”
“Our spot,” he smiles and I rest my head on his shoulder.
After that, our conversation drifts to the wedding and other things. We talk and kiss and hold one another for hours.
I yawn and Cody pulls out his phone. The sky isn’t light, but it’s the kind of dark that says the sun will rise in an hour or so.
“It’s late,” he says softly.
“Or early,” I say with another yawn.
“I don’t want to leave you, but I think we have to go,” he says.
“Yeah, duty calls,” I agree.
Cody tugs me close and we snuggle and then he kisses me. We’re not rushing even though time is not our friend. He kisses me like a man in love, and I kiss him back with my whole heart.
When we separate, he scoots down the truck bed and holds his hand out to me. I put my hand in his and jump down.
“I can’t wait to take you out riding again,” he says out of the blue.
“Poor Lark has been neglected. She’s fine. She just hasn’t been on a good ride in a while—not unless you count the other night when I met you at the fence line. And I think she was just confused then.”
“Jasper either,” he laments. “I ride him for work, and I took him out that night, but I haven’t just let loose and taken him out over the hills since you and I went out.”
“We’ll get back to riding,” he promises.
I’m sure he’s assuring himself as much as he’s promising me.
“We will,” I agree. I let out a breath.
