She smiles and wiggles her toes. “Babe.” My heart melts. “You are the very best thing that has happened to me since the day Amelia was born. And that’s saying a lot considering you’re in competition with a considerable amount of zeroes.”
“Now you’re talking.” I lean across the table and put my hand over hers. “Youaredeserving, you know. As much as anyone else is. Maybemorethan anyone else. Because not many people would give half their money away and refuse to spend the rest on themselves.”
“That doesn’t make me deserving, Carter. Practical maybe. Charitable. But not deserving.”
I gobble down my last bite. “So you’d take it all back if you could? Not buy the ticket?”
“In a heartbeat.” She goes silent after saying it, studying my eyes, my hair, my lips. Her head shakes. “Actually, no. I wouldn’t. But not because of the money. Because no matter what I had to go through to get here, I’m here. Withyou. If I hadn’t bought the ticket, I’d have never met you.”
“You just turned me into the Grinch, Babe,” I say with a wry grin.
She’s utterly confused, so I explain, “My heart just grew three sizes.”
She laughs and rolls her eyes.
“And on that note.” I motion for our check. The waiter comes over with it and my pre-ordered dessert to go.
Kenna eyes the to-go bag. “Impatient are we?”
“Oh, we sure as hell are.”
“What’s inside?” she asks curiously.
“Mmmm,” I mumble. “Cheesecake.”
She doesn’t say anything. Just licks her lips. Yup—she remembers.
And miraculously, she lets me pay without even putting up a fight.
Back in the car, when I exit the lot and turn in the opposite direction of home, Kenna says, “Wrong way.”
“No. It’s not.”
She turns and stares. “What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her growing smile. It gets even bigger when, twenty minutes later, we pass Bart’s Market. “We’re going to the cabin?”
I shrug. “Where else would we eat cheesecake?”
She’s practically squirming in her seat when we pull up. It’s getting dark out, and when she notices the light coming from the front window, her eyes narrow. “You planned this? Wait, is that what you were doing this afternoon when you said you were working on Trevor’s car with him?”
I don’t answer. I just hop out, circle around, and open her door.
It’s a relatively cool evening, but I’m sweating as we make our way to the door. When I open it and she sees inside, her hand flies to her mouth. “Carter, it’s amazing.”
Jaw hanging open, she takes in the room. With Mia’s help, I transformed the entire living room into a wonderland. Fairy lights line the ceiling and are strung across almost every surface. Flowers—dozens and dozens of them—sit in various-size vases. A bottle of champagne is chilled and sitting atop mostly melted ice. And in the smack-dab center of the room, right in front of the fireplace, is the air mattress.
I stride over and light the fire I built earlier.
She goes into the center of the room and turns around and around. “I have to admit, it kind of classes up the place.”
I come up behind her and snake my arms around her waist.“You’rewhat classes up the place.”
She glances at me over her shoulder. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
“Not to change the subject or anything, but I was thinking you should have your name on the sign at the shop. You know, considering technically you own part of the business.”
