Page 63 of Suddenly Yours

“What?” I asked, my voice a little rougher than intended.

“Nothing.” She shrugged, her gaze wandering over the room before settling back on me. “It’s just… this. I like being here with you.”

I didn’t wait. I crossed the distance, kissing her slow and deep, tasting the spaghetti sauce and the wine and the promise of the night. I gripped her waist and hoisted her up until she was perched on the counter, stepping between her thighs so I could pull her flush against my chest. I kissed her until both of us started vibrating.

She fit. That was the only way to describe it. Every curve of her was a puzzle piece I’d been carrying around, waiting for the rest of the picture to show up.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered, then I scooped her up, her legs instantly locking around my waist. I started toward the stairs, my pulse thrumming in my ears.

“You’re going to drop me,” she warned, though she was giggling, her fingers threading through the hair at the nape of my neck. “Like you did in junior high when I tried out for cheerleading and asked you to be my spotter while I practiced.”

I chuckled, pausing at the base of the stairs to shift her weight, feeling the solid, beautiful reality of her in my arms. “I’ve grown a lot since then, Missy. In more ways than one.”

“Mmm, you’re right, this is much better,” she sighed, resting her temple against my shoulder.

Upstairs, the room was cool, and the moonlight spilled across the unmade bed. I slid her down until her bare feet hit the floor, then slowly, almost reverently, began to peel away her clothes. My hands were steady, but my mind was a riot.

I’d spent years watching her from the sidelines. I’d seen her look at the preppy guys, the guys with the right pedigree and the polished shoes. I’d known I wasn’t her type. I was just the guy who worked with his hands and kept his feelings buried under layers of sawdust and silence. But somewhere, the friendship had shifted. The tectonic plates of my life had moved, and suddenly, there was no version of the future that didn’t have her at the center of it.

I loved her. I loved her so much it felt like it might actually crack my ribs if I didn’t let it out soon. Even if we crashed and burned, I knew I’d never be able to untangle my soul from hers.

I was moving slowly, my thumbs tracing the line of her hip, just marveling at the fact that she was actually here.

“Cade?” she whispered, her voice a soft question in the dark.

I looked up, catching the heat in her eyes. “I’m just enjoying the view,” I said with a grin. “Unwrapping a gift like you is its own reward.”

She chuckled, her hands reaching for the button of my shorts. “Then let me try.”

When we finally tumbled back onto the sheets, skin-to-skin, the tension in the room was electric. I hovered over her, my arms braced on either side of her head, needing to hear it one more time.

“You’re really moving in here?” I asked, my voice barely a breath.

She didn’t answer with words at first. She just wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss that tasted like home. “Yes,” she whispered against my lips.

When I moved into her, it wasn’t just physical. It was a homecoming. Every stroke, every breath, felt like I was building something more permanent than any house. As the world started to blur and the pressure built, I knew I couldn’t keep how I felt about her inside anymore.

I leaned down, my lips grazing the shell of her ear as she peaked, and I whispered the three words I’d been saving for her since I was old enough to know what they meant.

Chapter Eighteen

Missy

I had no clue what to do with Cade’s confession, those words I’d heard from a few other people but had yet to say back to anyone. So I took the cowards way out and pretended to be asleep.

Listening to Cade’s slow even breathing next to me, I ran through the past few months in my head, from the time I decided to follow Cade, my brother, and Cora to Silver Cove, to opening day at Sweet Expectations, to now.

Why had I decided to come here?

The answer was right there, warm and solid at my back with his arms wrapped around me, like he had always belonged there.

Cade.

Sometime in the early morning, when the rain had faded into a memory and pale light slipped in through the curtains, I finally fell asleep for real.

I woke to the smell of cinnamon and butter.

For a few seconds, I was disoriented. Wrapped in the sheets, my body felt heavy and relaxed in a way it rarely was. Then I heard the soft clink of a pan and the low hum of Cade’s voice as he moved around the kitchen downstairs.