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Her heart races beneath me as she reaches up and gently traces the line of my cheek with her fingers. I try to catch my breath, not wanting to move, or for this moment to end. “Lila,” I lean down and whisper against her hair. “Say it again.”

“What?” she asks in a soft, dreamy voice. I prop myself up on an elbow so I can see her gorgeous face.

“That you love me.”

She tilts her head, narrowing her eyes on me. “I do. I love you, Gideon Stone.” A smile tugs at her lips. “I love, love, love you.” Then her expression changes, and I can see her worries have crept into that spectacular brain of hers.

“What is it?”

“I meant what I said, but it doesn’t change the fact that I lost tonight.”

I inch closer, so we’re facing each other, breath on breath. “A rigged ribbon doesn’t erase a spectacular pie, or the thousands of desserts you made before it.”

“Tell that to my bank account.” She tries to laugh, but it sounds hollow.

I brush the hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “Stay.” The word hangs between us. “Not just tonight. Stay here, with me.”

“I can’t just—”

“You can. Maya would understand. Open a bakery here, or bake at the Grizzly and team up with mom, where people already know how incredible you are.”

“You’re serious.”

“I wanted you to win so the world would catch up to what I already know. It didn’t. So what? Stay because you belong on this mountain with me. Stay because my family has already set a plate for you at the table permanently. In case you haven’t noticed, my mother is crazy about you, and so is the rest of my family. Besides, I’m too stubborn to watch you pack that Pelican case and call it practical when you have nowhere practical to go.”

She laughs, and then her eyes fill, and her chin starts to tremble, and the dam breaks. I pull her into my arms as she starts to cry. “I sure as fuck hope these are happy tears.”

“They are, but if I stay, it can’t be because I have nowhere else to go. That isn’t fair to you. I don’t want to use you.”

“I’m totally cool with you using me. That works,” I deadpan, but I’m not joking in the slightest. “Stay because you want to. Stay because you want to breathe fresh mountain air, and feel my cock filling you every night. Stay because you really love me, Lila.”

“I do.”

“So we’ll figure it out. Together.” I run a thumb over her knuckles. “Whatever you need. If you wanted Maya here, we’d find a way to make it happen.”

“You’d do that?” She laughs, a real one this time, full of disbelief and hope. “You’d just import my entire Chicago life to your mountain?”

“I’d do anything to keep you here,” I confess, and the truth of it settles deep in my bones. “What would I have done if you’d never come to Passion Pines? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” I stare into her eyes. “And?”

“I love you. And not as a landing pad. As you.”

“Then it’s settled. I’m not going to miss you.”

She huffs and drops her stare, looking wounded. “Nice. That stung.”

“Because you’re not leaving,” I clarify, tipping her face up so she can see I’m not playing. “And I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to marry you Lila, make babies with you whenever you say the word, and love you for the rest of my life.” She stares at me, obviously stunned. Maybe I went a little too far, and she wasn’t ready to hear all of it. “Do we have a deal, curvy spice?”

“Oh, we definitely do, mountain man.” She wraps her arms around my waist, squirms underneath me, and manages to get me on my back. I grin, watching her spread her legs to straddle me, before pushing me down on the cushions, whispering something I can’t make out.

“What did you say?”

She comes down close to my lips and whispers, “I said you’re the love of my life. What do you say we start practicing on that baby making plan?”

“Deal,” I whisper.

A camera sits where my mother’s cooling racks used to be, with its lens aimed at the fancy butcher-block island they rolled in for “optics.” Lila has the contents of her assassin’s kit on it, laid out like jewelry: the aluminum pin, her other baking gizmos and the jar of Applejack with mace she still guards like a state secret.

“Okay, Lila,” Derick announces, in a voice far too loud for this space, so he knows I hear him. “That’s a take. Fifteen minutes, everyone.”