His lips twitched, his eyes warmed. “Harley,” he said very softly, and she nearly lost it.
“No, listen,” she said. “I know you didn’t want-that we said-”
He took one of her waving hands in his and pressed it to his chest. Beneath, she could feel the steady beat of his heart, and it helped calm hers. “Me too, Harley. All of it. I want you so damn much. I want to be with you, only you. I want everything that you can give me.”
“What about your trips?”
“I can take ’em or leave ’em. What I can’t do without is you.”
She felt the smile and the tears rush together, and she became utterly and completely sure of at least one thing. “Not casual.”
He shook his head solemnly. “There’s nothing casual about how I feel about you.”
She lurched up and pretty much threw herself at him, crawling up his body. Rising to his full height, he had one arm beneath her butt, the other across her back and right there on top of the world he kissed her, claimed her. In response, she sank her fingers into his hair, pouring out everything she had, all the heat, affection, frustration, fear, love…all of it into that one kiss.
“Ahem,” Nick said from behind them. “The pastor said we’re on the five-minute countdown.”
They kept kissing.
Nick sighed. “You two do realize there’s no closet door this time, right? That we can all see you?”
TJ slowly let Harley slide down his body, taking a minute to scrape his teeth over her jaw, and when she moaned, he let out a low growl of appreciation and bent his head again, but Nick stepped close and slapped a hand on his chest.
Without taking his eyes off Harley, TJ said, “We have five minutes. You just said so yourself.”
Nick shook his head and walked away.
Grinning.
TJ pulled some papers out of his pocket. Harley’s employment papers, the ones she’d filled out earlier for Stone. “I found these.”
“Stone told you.”
“That you want to temp for us as our new outdoor specialist and photographer? Yeah.”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Do you really have to ask?”
“Actually…” She held her breath, then bent and opened her backpack, pulling out a pencil. “Can I see those? I have a change to make.”
He peeked into her well-organized pack. “Wow. Impressive.”
“You like? A good friend taught me how to organize it.”
His eyes were quiet and assessing. “A good friend?”
“The best kind of friend. My everything friend.” She flipped through the pages to the end. “It occurred to me that I’ve always had a lot of temporary stuff in my life. I’m hoping to change that, and upgrade to a more permanent status.” She erased the “temporary” on her application, then leaned in and wrote permanent. She looked up. “If there’s still a place for me.”
“There will always be a place for you, at Wilder, and in my heart. Turn it over, Harley.”
She felt a little dizzy from his words, and the deep meaning behind them. “What?”
“The application. Turn it over.”
She flipped the pages over. He’d written her name at the top, and then a list of qualifications:
She burst out laughing. “Makes you hot is a con?”
“I couldn’t think of anything bad.”
“Liar.”
He smiled and ran his thumb over her jaw. “Okay, maybe I just like you how you are, faults and all.”
Her breath caught. “Even though I have a hard time putting how I feel into words?”
“You’ve shown me how you feel. In actions.”
Her throat caught. He got her, really got her. She closed her eyes and opened her heart, and for the first time in her life, took a real risk. “You once asked me what was going on between you and me. I never answered you.”
“I know. We’ve been waiting for you to decide.”
“I’ve been a little slow on the uptake,” she admitted. “I didn’t have the words then, but I have the words now.”
He reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth. “Do you?”
“I love you, TJ.” She was a little startled at how easily the words came. “I think I always have.”
He looked stunned, and she took a moment to realize that he hadn’t been sure exactly what she was offering him. And with that, she faced something else. All along she’d understood that she was out of her element, far from her comfort zone when it came to him, but the truth was, he was just as far out of his comfort zone, and just as off balance.
She’d rendered him speechless. Before the smug smile could spread across her face, he’d grabbed her in a crushing hug, burying his face in her neck. There was no sly teasing, no sexy innuendo, nothing but him holding her like he planned to never let her go. “I wasn’t happy in Alaska,” he whispered. “For the first time, I needed out of there.” He pulled back a step and slid his hands up to cup her face so she could see his tender smile. His voice, when it came, was low and gruff with emotion. “It wasn’t home.”
“You’ve been gone from Wishful for much longer before.”
“No. Well, yeah. But that’s not what I’m getting at. I missed you next to me.”
Undone, throat tight, heart pounding, it took her a moment to respond. “Home is being next to me?”
“Now you’re getting there.” His smile warmed her from the inside out. “Yeah, home is being next to you. And on top of you. And underneath,” he murmured. “And buried deep inside…”
With a laugh, she walked back into his arms. And found her own sense of home.
EPILOGUE
Harley sat at one of the many decorated tables arranged across the lodge’s expansive back deck. Cam’s and Katie’s wedding reception was in full swing. Guests were dancing, eating, talking, laughing.
It was a beautiful January evening, a cool thirty-four degrees, but there were freestanding heaters at every corner, and no one felt the chill.
Least of all Cam and Katie, locked in each other’s arms in the center of the makeshift dance floor. Stone and Emma weren’t too far away, swaying to the music as well.
Harley sighed in pleasure, enjoying the sense of…peace. She and TJ had just come back from co-guiding a three-week bike trip in Costa Rica. She could still feel the warmth from the long days in the sun.
And the longer nights in TJ’s arms. Oh yeah, that was definitely her favorite part. The way he looked at her, held her, touched her.
As she smiled with the memories, he came back to the table. He’d ditched his tux jacket and tie, had untucked his white shirt, and looked good enough to finish unwrapping and eat for dessert. He held two flutes of champagne, smiling as he handed her one, his eyes filled with heat and affection.
There were no more long treks on the schedule. If any booked, Harley and TJ would probably take them, but for the time being they were back in Wishful. She’d moved into his cabin. During the days, he was working the shorter
