Quickly, I double-check everything in my mind that I planned for her arrival. I think it's all perfect or as near to perfect as it's gonna get.
The car is parked and Penny's steppin' out before I can blink. At first, her steps are hurried as she rushes over to the porch. But she stops and ascends the stairs very slowly, hesitantly.
When she reaches the top, I quickly walk over to her and pull her into my arms, afraid that she's a mirage that will disappear if I don't touch her. "Penny," I whisper into her flowery-scented hair.
"Colt," she whispers back brokenly.
Penny feels like home to me. I can't believe I was stupid enough to let her go. I hold her tightly as she wraps her arms around my waist, tremblin' against me. A deep ache in my chest lets me know how much I've missed her, and I know in that moment that she's missed me just as much.
"There's somethin' I want to show you," I whisper in her ear. Reluctantly, I pull away from her, but I'm quick to draw her hand into mine. I never want to let her go again. I made that mistake too many times before in the past.
I lead her down the dirt path to the old tire swing hangin' from a big willow tree at the edge of the property. We shared our first kiss and our first date there, and I dreamt about it the other night. I was a boy, thirteen years old, and head over heels in love with my best friend. It was the first time I let Penny know my true feelings. For a while I was afraid that she hated me because I picked on her so much. But I was a boy and that's what boys do --- they pick on the girls they secretly like.
I hear her gasp when she sees what I spent hours this mornin' settin' up. On the grass is a red-checkered tablecloth that I found in the attic. I'm pretty sure it's the same one I used on our first date. In the picnic basket is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bottles of water and apple slices.I wasn't much of a cook back then, I think to myself with a smile.
Penny glances from the picnic and back to me. "You…you remembered?" she asks, tentatively.
I nod and sit down on the tablecloth, pullin' her down next to me. I pick up the scrapbook that she had made for my birthday and flip to the first page. It hurt me that she left it behind when she left for New York, but I can't blame her. I was a complete jerk. It took me a long, lonely month to realize I was bein' a complete idiot.
"The more I studied this thing and asked our friends questions, the more I seemed to remember." I hesitate before I tell her, "I never wanted to remember before…before you came back into my life, Penny. You make me want to remember what we had even if I have to remember everything I lost. You were the best thing that ever happened to me." I reach up and let my knuckles brush against her soft cheek. "I remember you in here," I say, pointin' to my heart. "My brain may have forgotten you, Penny, but my heart never did, and it never will."
Tears spill down her pink cheeks, and I pull her close and kiss her. Her salty tears mix in with the kiss, and it all feels so damn perfect. I make her mad, and she drives me crazy. And now I just want her to be happy with me…forever.
I pull back from her for a moment and stare into her beautiful, stormy gray eyes. "I want to keep rememberin'. I want you to help me remember. Everything."
"Oh, Colt." Her lips part on a sob, and I kiss her again. It feels so natural to kiss and hold her. It's like I had the blueprints all along stored somewhere in the back of my mind. I was just too damn stubborn to use them.
I gently cup her face in my hands and run my thumbs along her lower lip. "I love you, Penny."
She crumbles at my words. "I've waited so long for you to say those words to me, Colt." She takes a deep breath before she says, "I love you, too."
I close my eyes and cherish her words. I love this girl so much it hurts. And I'm never lettin' her go.
We spend the next few hours eatin' peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and laughin' and talkin' about stories from our childhoods. We flip through the pages of the scrapbook together, and she tells me about the things we experienced when we were young. And when the sun goes down, I forgo the efforts I put into recreatin' our first date, and I take her to my bed.
I make love to Penny well into the night. And as the moonlight cascades down on her beautiful face as she sleeps in my bed, I know that this is where she was meant to be all along --- with me and in my arms. I love her with every ounce of my bein'.
Gently, I brush a piece of her blonde hair away from her face and kiss her forehead. "I love you, Penny Lane Preston. And I'm gonna spend the rest of my life makin' you happy."
All this time I've been fightin' the inevitable, but Penny and I belong together. Now and for the rest of our lives.
EPILOGUE
PENNY
"CAN I OPEN them now?" I ask impatiently. It feels like I've been standing here forever. Colton woke me up early this morning with the promise of a big reveal. What exactly he's revealing, I have no idea. I know that he has been coordinating what he calls an expansion on one side of the bar, and it's been top secret. He even swore Buddy to secrecy. And no matter how many times Shelby Rae and I tried to pry the answers out of him, Buddy wouldn't spill.
The construction crew has been working under a big, white tarp, not even allowing me a peek into what they might be building next door. The whole thing has me curious and so damn frustrated. I never was very good with surprises.
And so here I stand with Colton, Buddy and Shelby Rae with my eyes closed, patiently waiting…or not so patiently.
"Not yet," Colton replies to my question.
Sighing, my fingers tap nervously on the sides of my legs covered by my skirt. "How about now?" I ask with a big grin.
I feel Colton step close to me, and he kisses me softly before saying, "No. How did I not notice how impatient you were before?"
Chuckling, I just shrug at him.
