"Sergio might send out a search party."
"Definitely."
I kiss him again because I can. Because he's here and warm and mine, at least for tonight. Maybe for longer if I'm brave enough to reach for it.
"Okay." I pull back and reach for my jeans, which are somehow tangled with the blankets. "For real this time. We're going home."
"If we must." He helps me find my clothes, his hands lingering on bare skin just long enough to make me shiver.
We climb back into the front seats like civilized people. I catch a glimpse of myself in the visor mirror and wince. My hair looks like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket. My lips are swollen. There's a red mark on my neck that I definitely don't remember getting.
I look thoroughly debauched.
"You look gorgeous," Carlos says, starting the engine.
"I look like I just had sex in a truck."
"You look happy." He reaches over and laces his fingers through mine. "That's what gorgeous is."
The drive back to town is quiet. Not awkward quiet. Comfortable quiet. The kind of quiet that exists between two people who don't need to fill every silence with words.
I watch the trees blur past outside the window and let myself feel everything. The residual warmth between my legs. The slight soreness in my jaw. The flutter in my stomach that has nothing to do with my approaching heat and everything to do with the man holding my hand.
I let myself think about Callum for the first time in hours.
And I feel... nothing.
No guilt. No regret. No second thoughts about leaving him at the altar.
Just relief.
Relief that I got out. Relief that I didn't spend the rest of my life trying to be someone I'm not. Relief that I ran toward something instead of just away from something.
"You okay?" Carlos glances over at me. "You got quiet."
"Just thinking."
"About?"
"How I don't feel bad." I squeeze his hand. "About any of this. I thought I would. Thought I'd feel guilty or conflicted or like I was moving too fast. But I don't. I just feel... right."
His smile could light up the entire valley. "Good. Because I'm planning to make you feel right a lot more often."
"Promises, promises."
"Oh, I deliver." He brings my hand to his lips and presses a kiss to my knuckles. "Just you wait."
We pull into the driveway, and my stomach does a nervous flip.
The house is lit up like Christmas. Every window glowing. I can see movement in the kitchen, shadows passing back and forth.
"They're all home," I say unnecessarily.
"Looks like it."
"What do we tell them?"
Carlos cuts the engine and turns to face me. "The truth. That we went for a drive. That we talked. That I'm completely gone for you and you're willing to give this crazy thing a shot."
