He pulled me into his side and I went, settling my head on his chest, his arm coming around me. His heartbeat was still coming down. I listened to it slow.
"You should've said something sooner," I said.
"I should've said something sooner," he agreed.
"I'm just—for the record—I'm right about most things."
He made a sound that was almost a laugh. "Noted."
I traced a line across his chest without thinking about it, just my fingertip along his collarbone, and felt him exhale.
Outside, something moved in the pasture. One of the goats, probably Dolly, always the last one to settle. The creek ran on past the tree line, low and steady.
"Forrest."
"Mm."
"What happens now?"
He was quiet for a moment. Not hesitating — thinking. I was learning the difference.
"Now you stay," he said. "If you want."
"I want."
"Then you stay." His arm tightened slightly around me. "Everything else we figure out."
I’d fallen in love with the boy next door. I knew that in my case…that meant I was still only a fence away from the men that wanted to take me prisoner again, punish me.
It should have felt overwhelming.
It didn’t. Because I was safe…safe with the best man I’d ever known.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
This was home.
TEN
Forrest
I was in bed with a woman who wasn’t Sophie.
And I was…I was okay.
I’d tried this before, only a few times…but I hadtried. Every night, afterward, I’d asked her to leave—or she left on her own, uncomfortable with my silence or my attitude or…whatever the hell was wrong with me.
But Willa.
Willa was here, and she was…when she’d asked like that, I couldn’t say no.
Not couldn’t.
I didn’t want to say no. I wanted her.
At some point in those few seconds between the time she walked into my room and started taking off her clothes, I’d made a decision: she had been through enough. She’d had enough people tell her what to do. And even if she decided she didn’t want me in the end, even if she needed to get out in the world and explore…I was going to give her what she wanted. WhatIwanted.
I was going to make it so good for her she’d know what standards should be when she left.
