Her jaw drops before snapping shut again, and she pulls back.
Her steps are stumbling, her heel nearly catching a stray root sticking out of the ground.
She pauses, more tears welling in her eyes. "No. You really wouldn't say that to me."
"Well, I am now." I press my forehead against hers, hands slipping down to her waist as I close my eyes. "I love you, and this house is for us, and if you'll have me, I'm going to spend time turning it into everything you've ever dreamed of."
"You love me," she whispers against my lips.
"I do."
"I think I love you too."
I chuckle, pulling back enough to look down at her. "You think?"
She laughs, the tears drying up. "Well, I didn't really know. Not until I saw your dead body."
"So, that means..."
"I love you too." She presses her lips against mine.
It takes me no time at all to give in to her, my lips moving against hers as I grab onto her waist, pulling her closer.
I need her to feel what I feel. To know that this is what forever is going to look like because I'm not going to let her go.
I've given up everything for her, and I think it might be the best thing I've ever done.
She's breathless when we finally break apart. "How? I saw the picture. You looked dead. There's not a single mark on your chest even though there should be."
"I didn't ask where Aiden got the blood, but if I had to guess, I'd say he went to a butcher shop and got some." I don't want to spend too much time thinking about how almost giddy he was to be making me look like a gunshot victim.
She pushes away from me, stalking back and forth. "And if he knew you were alive, why the hell didn't he say anything to me? And why thefuckwould you kidnap me instead of just telling me to come see you? Or, I don't know, when you fucking sedated me, you could?—"
"That was Hector."
The look she gives me could turn bone to ash. It's withering and fueled by rage. "Hector got to know you were alive, but not a single fucking person thought to tell me? You and Aiden cooked up this fucking scheme, and then the pair of you decided to just?—"
"Aiden wanted me to go to Chicago in his scheme. I came up with Washington while he was putting the blood on me. Remembered seeing the picture in your room."
Her lips press into a flat line as she rakes her fingers through her hair, pushing the messy strands back from her face. "What the hell goes on in your mind?"
"I thought Aiden told you I was alive! He was supposed to tell you that I was alive and that I was going to reach out to you as soon as I was safe." I stare at her, scrambling for the right words to say to calm her down.
Is this going to be the moment she decides she's done with me?
I thought she was done with me, thought she had turned her back on me entirely when she shot me and left me bleeding there. Even after she told me what she was doing, I still thought she was going to turn on me the way so many others had.
And then I took the time to think about it, and she was willing to make the choice to save my life.
She was the one who knew what I needed most. She was willing to leave me if it gave me another shot at life.
The sacrifice she made, the way she slighted her brother, can't be for nothing.
Summer has a slow smile creeping across her face, even though there's still annoyance in her eyes. "Neither of you is ever going to be allowed to make a plan with each other again. This has to be the stupidest thing anyone has ever done. Have you even thought about what happens when people recognize you?"
"Gonna grow out a beard. Wear my hair a little longer." I cross the distance between us, pulling her close to me. "Want to take a tour?"
"Can I still tell you how horrible this plan was later?"
