“Rob, wait.” He didnotwait. With his hands shoved in his pockets and his shoulders bowed, he kept walking. “Rob!”
He paused for the space of a breath, and then with a small shake of his head that shouldn’t have had the power to break Hannah’s heart in two, he took another step. Then another.
She was afraid if he turned that corner and disappeared behind the trees, nothing would ever be okay again.
“Bobby!”she cried. And then in little more than a whisper, “Please wait.”
When he stopped walking, she sucked in a breath and held it, practically willing him to stop—to understand what she was trying to say. And more than anything, to turn around.
And then he did, and she saw the hope burning in his eyes. “People who really love me call me Bobby.”
“I love you.” Tears streamed over her cheeks, but she didn’t care because Rob was walking back to her. “That’s the truth. I was afraid to tell you because I didn’t know... I was a mess and wasn’t sure what I was doing with my life, but I was sure I loved you.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “When I was in your camper, I saw your notebook. You had plans and pros and cons and things to consider and I didn’t factor in anywhere. My name wasn’t on that page and it broke my heart.”
“I was using that page to sort how I felt about things and I didn’t write your name down because I didn’t need to sort my feelings about you.” She smiled through her tears. “That was all noise, but under it all, there was you. I didn’t need to write your name for it to be imprinted on my heart.”
He kissed her, fiercely, and she clutched his shoulders as his arms slid around her and tightened as if he was never going to let her go again.
Then he rested his forehead against hers. “I’ll go to California with you if you ask me.”
A sob escaped her and she curled her fingers into his T-shirt. Helping his brothers make this campground a success meant the world to him, and she couldn’t take that away from him. “You can’t leave your brothers.”
“I can’t leaveyou.”
“I love you so much,” she said, her heart filled with the joy of saying it out loud. “But I was drawn here for college. I was drawn here when I was at a crossroads in my life. I was drawn toyou, and I want to be here with you.”
“But your family. I don’t want to take you from them.”
She stroked his cheek. “We’re going to make our own family, and mine will be there whenever I need them. We can talk on the phone. FaceTime. There are planes. Campers. They’ll be happy for me, Rob.”
He picked her up off her feet, swinging her around while she laughed. He was laughing, too, when he set her back on her feet. “Do you forgive me for not telling you I love you like a month ago and saving us the heartache?”
“Do you forgivemefor not telling you a month ago?” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him again.
What could have been one minute or ten minutes later, when the kiss ended, he looked into her eyes. “What’s next?”
She looked over her shoulder at the camper she’d been preparing for the road. “Do you think they can live without you for two or three weeks?”
“As much as it pains my ego to admit it, I think they could keep things together without me for that long.”
Hannah leaned back enough so she could tilt her head back and see his face. “How do you feel about a road trip?”
“I’m up for anything as long as we’re doing it together.” He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, his thumb lingering on her skin.
“We can take our time heading west and maybe see a few things along the way. You can meet my family.” She chuckled when he made a mock-terrified face. “Then we can pack what I absolutely need into my car, sweet-talk my mom and sister into shipping the rest to me and then head east again. We’ll be back in plenty of time to help get the campground ready for Steph’s wedding.”
“Road Trip of Doom,” he said, giving her that Kowalski grin. “Let’s do it.”
Epilogue
“You know my mother’s going to want to throw us an engagement party.”
Hannah nodded, flipping on her turn signal to indicate she was going to pass the car that was doing five under the speed limit. The closer they got to New Hampshire—tohome—the faster she wanted to drive.
“She can throw us any kind of party she wants as long as Gram makes the blond brownies,” she said. “And I’m sure my mom and your mom are already talking about it.”
“They really did take the news well. About you moving all the way across the country, I mean.”
