“When?”I manage to ask.My throat feels thick, clogged with emotions rising too quickly to contain.My fingers tremble as I trace the lines of the tattoo again, slower this time, letting the colors of each petal bleed into meaning.When I saw them before, they were just shapes, just fragments of color I didn’t understand.Now, they’re an open doorway, leading to insight I didn’t know existed—a truth I hadn’t braced for.
I don’t need to hear him tell me that theEweaved into my favorite flower, etched permanently onto his skin, is for me.
“Your parents’ funeral.”
My world tilts.
My stomach drops.
My heart stutters to one violent screeching halt, before it lurches back to life, pounding so hard it feels like my chest might split open from the force.So many emotions wash over me all at once.My body heats, then cools, and for a moment, I can’t tell if I’m sitting or falling.All I can feel is the weight of his words settling into a place I didn’t know was still fragile.
“You were there?”I ask, my voice pained as I speak over the golf-ball-sized lump in the back of my throat.
“I was.”Reaching out, he takes my hand in his.“I needed to be there.I didn’t know what I was getting into.I didn’t know if you would need me, but the thought of not being there if you did, gutted me.I asked for personal emergency leave, which was granted, and hopped on a flight.My flight was delayed, so I got there late and stood back.I watched as my best friends, yours, comforted you and your sisters.I saw my mom, my brother, and Macie, and everyone seemed to have someone.None of you needed me.I stayed back and slipped out before the services were over.”
“Copeland,” I whisper through my tears.
“I didn’t know how to deal.I was missing you with a fierceness I couldn’t put into words.I didn’t want to talk to my family.I was worried I’d be cruel because the pain was so intense.Instead, I got back into my rental and just drove.I found myself in a little town about thirty minutes outside of Nashville called Ashby.There was a new tattoo shop just on the edge of town, Everlasting Ink.They worked me in, and this was the result.”
I open my mouth to speak, but instead of words, a sob slips free.Copeland pulls me down onto his bare chest and wraps his arms around me.I sob uncontrollably.I cry for my parents, for the time we lost, and I cry for the man who’s holding me together.He came back for me twice and thought I didn’t need him.I should have tried to reach him.I should have demanded he talk to me and give me answers back then.
I don’t know how long I cry, but Copeland’s hold on me never weakens.When I finally feel like I can speak, I lift my head, and he wipes my tears with his thumbs.There’s so much emotion swirling in their depths that it causes another round of pain to quake inside my chest.
“I love you,” he whispers.“After that day, it got a little easier, as if I was always carrying a piece of you with me.Not just your memory or the hold you had on my heart, but a piece of you.”
I’ve lost my ability to form words because of the lump blocking my throat.Instead, I move closer and kiss him.I kiss him with everything I have inside me as I crawl up his body.We’re aligned skin to skin, front to front, with nothing but love between us.
I love this man with an intensity that shakes the foundation of who I am, because I’m not me without him.
Eighteen
Copeland
My hands trace the slope of her spine.I wish that we could live in this moment forever.There is nowhere in the world I’d rather be than here, in this bed, with Ellison in my arms.I nip at her lip, and she moans.When she moves to straddle my lap, my hard cock presses against her wet pussy, and my head feels as if it could explode from the contact.
How did I live without this?Without her for so long?
Sitting up, bringing us chest to chest, I grip her hips, never breaking our kiss.Ellison reaches between us, fists my cock, lifts onto her knees, and guides me inside her.
Home.
This woman is my home.
“Fuck,” I hiss on a breath, because nothing has ever felt this fucking good in my entire life.Nothing.
I wrap my arms around her, hugging her tightly, as I bury my face in her neck.I don’t think she understands what she means to me.I love youdoesn’t seem strong enough, but I know two words that are.
Lifting my head, I move my hands to her cheeks.Her big blue eyes are bright and shining with not only desire, but love.“Marry me.”I couldn’t stop the words from leaving my mouth, even if I tried.
“I know this is the wrong moment.I know that sex is a terrible time to ask, and it’s a story we won’t be able to tell our kids, but, Ells, this moment is ours.Our bodies are connected, but so are our hearts and our souls.I want these moments with you forever.I’ll do it right,” I ramble.“I’ll give you the moment to tell our families, our kids, and our grandkids, but this single moment, it’s just for us.For you and me.Marry me, Ells.”
She settles her hands on my wrists, her eyes swimming with tears.“Copeland.”There’s so much reverence in her tone that if I were standing, it would bring me to my knees.
“I have a ring, but it’s small.I’ll get you a better one.I can afford more now than I could back then.”
“You have a ring?”she asks.
I nod.“Yeah, when I came home from boot camp, I bought a ring.All those yards I mowed, plus the small wage I made during boot camp.I was going to ask you to marry me then.”I let the rest hang between us.
