“No,” I said, putting my hand on his.
He looked up at me.“Why not?”
“Because that’s not how I want to get a job.If Bethany thinks I’m not the right fit, I don’t want you to tell her I am just because we’re together.”
“But if Hannah?—?”
“I’ll deal with it.I’ll deal with Hannah.I’ll go back to MacKellar Cove for a year and keep applying for jobs here if that’s what I need to do.I’m not giving up on moving here because your ex-wife thinks she’s going to get you back.”
“Is that what she said?”Josh’s face turned red, his lips tightening into an angry slash.
“Yes.But she’s not important.”
“She’s not?”Surprise brought his eyes back to me.
“If you’re still in love with her, that’s something I need to know, but?—”
Josh slid from his chair and dropped to his knees in front of me.He grabbed my hands, holding them tightly.“No.I’m not in love with Hannah anymore.I haven’t been for years.I love…” He closed his eyes for a second, then looked up at me.“I love you, Reegan.I know it’s fast, and I know you aren’t in the same place, but I love you.”
“What?Are you serious?”
He nodded.“I never saw you coming.I wasn’t looking for you, for anyone.But once you showed up, I couldn’t see anyone but you.You’ve been here for me in ways no one has, but that’s not why I love you.I love you because of a million little things.Things about you that make me want to learn a million more secrets about you.”
Tears rolled down my face.“I love you, too.”
“Oh, yeah?”His smile turned into a smirk, joy lighting up his features.
I nodded.“I do.I fell for you in the quiet mornings together.In the smiles you gave your daughter.In the way you were there for Christy when she needed you.I fell for you in the million little moments we’ve shared over the last two months.”
He inhaled deeply, inching closer to me.“You’re not scared off by the other women in my life?Evie, Christy, Hannah?”
I shook my head.“Not even a little.”
“Thank God for that,” he whispered against my lips.
Then he sealed our declarations with a kiss that bordered on indecent before we hurried inside.
Twenty-Four
Josh
Reegan wasin love with me.And moving to Amethyst Bay.And in love with me.
I almost couldn’t believe it.The whole summer, I thought I was the only one falling in love, feeling crazy for loving someone I barely knew, but I wasn’t crazy alone.She was right there with me.
I invited Christy, Oscar, Ashlyn, and Reegan over for a cookout the following night.Reegan and I had a private celebration after we confessed our love to each other, but I wanted to celebrate with our friends.
I hadn’t seen much of Christy since Coach died, and I knew she was working too much.She needed friends just like we needed her.Thankfully, she was available and said she’d join us.Oscar, too.
I told Oscar about Reegan applying for the job with Bethany, but he promised not to say anything to his sister-in-law.We both wanted to call her, but there was no way I was going to step in Reegan’s way.Not when she was so adamant I not get involved.
“Welcome home,” the woman I loved said when I got home that afternoon.She slid her arms around my waist.She smelled like us.We had a scent.After practically living together for a few days, I’d lost a sense of where I ended and she began.And I fucking loved it.
“That’s a damn good welcome home,” I whispered as her hands trailed south to my quickly growing erection.
“It feels like it’s going to be.”She worked her way into my boxer briefs and wrapped her hand around me.It didn’t take more than a few strokes before I was pulling out of her grasp and pressing her to the island.
I claimed her lips, diving between them as I lifted her onto the surface and pressed myself between her thighs.
