“So? What did you figure out?”
He splashes water onto my chest as he does every so often. I can’t tell if he’s trying to ensure that I’m warm or if he likes the way the water drips off my nipples. Either way, it’s soothing.
“I had ruled this out as of yesterday,” I say. “But it’s back on the table.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I really like Sugar Creek. Everyone is so nice there, and it’s so … slow. There’s no real hustle or bustle. I think it would be a really nice place to live.”
He nods. “Well, I’m in the market to buy or build a house. It might be too soon for us to go that far, but if you want to look at plans with me and give your two cents, I’d think that was pretty cool.”
“It might be too soon for us to talk about living together, but is that something you’d be into at some point?”
He chuckles, pressing a kiss in my hair. “Let me put it to you this way. I’m just trying not to scare the shit out of you. I’d love to build a house that you love as much as I do and, you know, at some point down the road, maybe we could have a family there.”
This shouldn’t make me cry, but it does.
Hot tears stream silently down my face, and I take a moment to just be thankful. I’m thankful for him, for perspective with my mother, for being able to be in a place where I can see the beauty of what’s around me. It turns out that it wasn’t just Brooks who needed to let the past go to move into the future. I did, too.
“I’d have a kid or three with you,” I say.
His cock hardens against my back, making me laugh.
“No odd numbers,” he says. “We can have one, which I know is an odd number, but it gets an exception. Or two, four, or six. I don’t care.”
“I’ve always wanted three, so I guess I could bump that to four.”
He splashes me gently again. “There’s a piece of land for sale out by the ranch. Fifty acres or so. The back corner touches Hart’s land.” Another splash. “The creek runs through it, and there’s a pond that we used to sneak over to when we were younger and fish.”
“You don’t have to try to sell it to me.”
“I just wanted to see if it’s something you might be interested in.”
I lean to the side and twist my neck so I can see his handsome face. What I see steals my breath.
My grandmother used to have a picture on her wall of a Bible verse boasting that love is patient, kind, not proud—that it never fails. I walked by that a million times growing up and never understood it.How could one thing be all those things at the same time?
I always thought I’d have to choose, that people were a mix of those qualities, and you couldn’t find them all in one man. Little Audrey was wrong. Youcanfind them all in one person. Maybe they’re not all especially visible every day, and maybe some are stronger than the others. But what I see when I look at the way Brooks looks at me is so pure, so good that my heart almost explodes.
It won’t always be like this. Bad days will come. Challenges will erupt out of nowhere. The hard times will fall. But that doesn’t scare me as it has in past relationships. I don’t feel vulnerable with him. I feel stronger. And that’s incredible.
“When we get back to Sugar Creek, I’d love to look at the land,” I say. “It sounds great.”
“When do you fly back?”
“Tomorrow. What about you?”
He grins. “One-way ticket. I wasn’t leaving without you.” He presses a kiss to my forehead.
“Hey, do you know what we could do? We could rent a car and drive back. That would be fun.”
“I have nowhere to be, so great. Let’s do it.” He settles me against him again. “Are you coming to Sugar Creek then? I wasn’t sure if you were staying in Nashville. Hartley said you took all your stuff when you left.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to be there if I didn’t have you. But Astrid and Gray won’t be back until rugby is over, so I’m free to use the cabin for a couple of months.”
“Or,” he says, “you could just stay with me. I mean, Otis must approve first because I can’t just bring strays in off the streets without his approval.”
I giggle.
