I feel like a kid in a candy store, upset that he can’t have everything he sees.
“Evie,” I say, taking her face in my hands.
And for a moment, I can’t believe the words that I want to so carelessly throw out into the world. That I’ve become a cliche, balls deep in a woman and realizing she’s everything that I ever wanted.
I swallow my words, kissing her instead. Because sure, she might be sad that I’m leaving for a few days, but thatdoesn’t mean she’s ready for me to throw out big declarations of love.
Even though I want to comfort her with those words. To tell her that I’ll only be gone for a few days. That she can be sure I’m not abandoning her to live my life in “the real world,” as she called it.
BecauseI love her.
I love her.
Flat out, no doubt. Who she is. The way she fights for what she loves. That brain of hers that supports and defends but has that silly side that doesn’t hesitate to clap back at me.
Her tongue slips into my mouth, and I wonder if I can hold it in.
I don’t trust my mouth to keep quiet.
But I’m relieved that when I do speak, it’s not an anticlimactic declaration of love, but a request for her presence.
“Come to New York with me,” I say, my lips brushing against hers.
She raises her eyebrows. “Come with you?”
I nod, then shake my head. “I won’t be there much—I do have to work—but the farm is slow right now. You said it yourself, you need to take it easy for a little while. I’ll buy you books and lunch and anything you want. I’ll set up private tours of the museums or, like, private shopping. Whatever you want.” I brush her hair out of her face, staring down into those big brown eyes. “I just can’t stand the thought of going home at night and not having you there with me.” I let out a long breath, my head dropping back down to her shoulder because I’m not making a particularly convincing argument. “I can’t have all of this and just… go without.”
She laughs lightly, her fingers running through my hair. “I’ll go with you.”
I lift my head. “Really?”
She shrugs. “I could use a few days away, you know? And it’s not like it’s far enough that I can’t come back if there’s a sunflower emergency.”
I nod. “I’m just worried you’ll get bored. I don’t want you hanging out alone in my apartment and feeling abandoned.”
“Is that why you didn’t invite me in the first place?”
I eye her. “Were you upset I didn’t invite you in the first place?”
She purses her lips, and that’s all the confirmation I need to feel like a royal dick. “No.”
“Evie,” I say.
“I didn’t think we were at a place where I’d, you know, just hang out at your apartment without you. I figured it was too soon to assume an invite.”
Just like it’s probably too soon to love you the way I do.
“As if I haven’t been just hanging around the sunflower farm for the better part of a month.”
“Very rude of you, by the way.”
I twirl a strand of her hair around my finger. “You’re welcome anywhere I am. In anything I do. Here or in New York. With anyone, anywhere.”Because I love you.
She raises her eyebrows. “Well, that is quite the blanket invitation.”
“I mean it.”
She wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me close again. “I’d love to come to New York with you.”
