I stay quiet.
"This isn't like the stuff you read. The shows, the films. This is very real. That's why you can't tell her anything unless we approve it. And that's why you can't tell her we have her brother's killer. That is leverage. That is something we might need to act on, and it's the only reason he's still breathing."
The burning in my throat tells me he's right. The burning in my chest tells me I hate it, but nothing stops me from wanting to be with him.
"How do I know you aren't using me?" I tease.
He rolls over. Pins my arms above my head. His face is inches from mine, and his eyes are clear and steady and stripped of every layer of charm he hides behind.
"Because I'd die for you, Harper. Without a second thought. You're not someone I protect because of blood. You are someone I protect out of pure devotion."
The air leaves my lungs.
"Ace..." I trail off.
"Yes, pretty girl?"
The stars are above him. The blanket is rough under my back. His hands are warm around my wrists. And everything I've been carrying since I got back to this town, every lie and every role and every night I've spent in LA pretending to be someone I'm not, all of it rushes to the surface and demands to be said.
"I want to give this a real shot."
He doesn't move. Just watches me with a burning intensity.
"I want to end the deal with Hudson and Gianna. I want to come home." My voice cracks. I let it. "I want to come home to you, Ace. I want that future you used to talk about. The wrap-around porch. The kids. Everything I thought I wanted in life was a lie. The career. LA. All of it. It's nothing compared to loving you. And I never want to lose that again."
He's so still above me. So completely, perfectly still.
"I chose wrong six years ago. I made a stupid decision because I was scared. I was scared of how much we loved each other. Of staying in the same town my whole life. Of letting you give up everything to chase after me." I take a breath. "I was wrong. And I want to come home now. If you'll have me. Forever this time."
I don't even realize the tears are streaming down my cheeks until he leans in and kisses them away. One side. Then the other.
"Yes, Harper Jones," he whispers. "I'll marry you."
I gasp. "I didn't..."
He chuckles. That sound that lives in my chest like a second heartbeat.
"I'm joking, darlin'. You coming home to me is the only dream I've held on to. It's all I want. You, Harper. You are all I'll ever want in this life."
He releases my wrists and cups my face. And I kiss him.
Not like before. Not desperate or feral or hungry. This kiss is slow and full and aching. The kind of kiss that holds ten years of history and six years of grief and every sleepless night I spent in LA staring at the ceiling and wondering if I'd made the biggest mistake of my life.
I did. And he forgave me before I even asked.
He pulls back just enough to press his forehead against mine.
"I will marry you, though, Harper. But I'm going to do it properly. The ring you've always dreamed of. Your parents front row. That honeymoon to Venice."
I laugh through the tears. He remembers. He remembers a conversation from when we were nineteen, lying in the back of this same truck, talking about a future we thought was guaranteed. I mentioned Venice once. One time. A throwaway line about gondolas and pasta and churches older than anything in Arizona.
He kept it. All these years. He kept it.
"My purpose in life is to make you happy, Harper. I'd follow you anywhere, and this time, you have to let me." He pauses. The corner of his mouth twitches. "No running. Only the fun kind where I catch you and fuck you."
I laugh so hard it shakes both of us. I wrap my legs around him and pull him down against me, and I don't care that we're in the back of a truck outside a bar in the middle of nowhere. I don't care that my hair is full of sand and my neck is covered in bite marks and his shirt is three sizes too big on me. I don't care about Hudson or Gianna or the Greeks or LA or any of the hundred tangled threads that are going to make leaving complicated.
Because this is simple. This has always been simple. Me and him and a truck bed and the stars.
