“I love the painting.” Her eyes glisten, not with raindrops but with raw, tender emotion. “I loved your note. And I love you, too, Jared.”
“Thank God.”
I pull her into my arms, cupping her nape as I take her mouth in a kiss I’ve been dying to taste for four long weeks. She’s wet against my suit and open-collared shirt, her face and skin still dripping with rain. I hold her to me as if I’ve been starving for water. I truly have been starving for her, for the feeling of her in my arms.
I draw back from her lips on a groan. “I should’ve told you I loved you, even before that night. Melanie, I’m sorry. I should’ve told you everything right from the start. That I love you. That I need you in my life. It’s been fucking agony without you.”
“I know,” she whispers, bringing my face back to hers and kissing me again. Her salty tears blend with the raindrops on her lips. “It’s been awful for me, too. I’ve missed you so much. I love you, Jared.”
“You’re mine.” I say it fiercely, needing her to understand. “I love you, Melanie Laurent. For the rest of my life, I’m going to love you.”
“You’d better,” she replies, happiness radiating in her smile as the sounds of cameras snapping photos and shocked murmurs travel the gaping crowd.
I hardly notice the hubbub we’re creating. I have all I need in the circle of my arms.
I kiss Melanie again, whispering tender promises against her lips, which taste like heaven to me.
No, she tastes so much better than that.
She tastes like forever.
Like coming home at last.
EPILOGUE
Autumn, one year later . . .
MELANIE
I stand next to Jared under a clear blue Kentucky sky.
Green rolling hills and acres of lush pasture edged with miles of pristine white fences spread out before us. Under a copse of shade trees near the recently erected barn, a dozen brown horses graze on clover, their black tails swishing, silky manes riffling in the breeze.
He’s been quiet for a while, looking out at the property he knew as a boy. The home that was taken from him and his parents, then won back by Jared years later if only so he could try to erase all his hurt by tearing everything down.
We’ve rebuilt most of it now, together.
The main house and new horse barns. The sprawling guest house crafted to accommodate twenty people at any given time. Alyssa Gallo is our first, arriving with her nine-month-old daughter just last week. She waves to us from the patio behind the main house, her baby in one arm, a basket of fresh-baked cornbread in the other.
“Chef says it’s almost time to bring the ribs out,” she calls out to us.
Chef being Gibson, who’s practically become a permanent fixture in the months since Jared and I have moved up to the farm with my mom, Katie, and our dog, Sadie. Gibson and Mom have tried to pretend their friendship is purely platonic, but I can’t remember when I’ve ever seen her smile and laugh as much as I do when he’s around.
Today, the pair insisted on cooking for us and our friends.
Nick and Avery, Gabe and Eve, along with Nathan Whitmore and my friend Paige are gathered and conversing on the big patio and deck at the main house, all of them having come for the weekend ground-breaking of the new art studio on the property. Jared still paints when we’re living in the Hamptons beach house, but here is where he and other visiting artists will teach the kids and young adults in need who come up from the city to stay with us and to learn.
As for me, I turned down the position with the accounting firm in the city. Instead, I’ll be putting my MBA to work at the foundation Jared and I have started to benefit gifted young artists and promising students in need of scholarships and grants. The work we do together is challenging, exciting, and, yes, deeply rewarding.
“I don’t know about you,” Jared says, reaching over to hold my hand. “But I’m not quite ready to join the others yet. I’m enjoying having you all to myself.”
I snuggle closer to him. “I like the sound of that.”
“Good, because I don’t plan on ever letting you go.”
We kiss, wrapping our arms around each other and staring into each other’s eyes. His face grows solemn as the moments pass. “I didn’t think it could be possible that I could fall any deeper in love with you than I already was. But I was wrong. You’re as vital to me as air, Melanie. You’re my heart.”
“And you’re mine, too. I think I’m alive just so I could eventually find you.”
He makes a tender sound as he bends his head down and kisses me again, slow and deep, as if nothing else exists in the world except the two of us and our love.
I want to hold him like this forever, but he slowly draws away from me.
I frown, feeling lost without his warmth around me. “What’s wrong?”
“Absolutely nothing.” His smile is warm and full of devotion as he reaches into the pocket of his barn jacket. He pulls out a small ring box.
I exhale a shaky sigh. “Oh, my God.”
He chuckles, his grin making my legs go a little weak beneath me as I watch him sink down onto one knee in the grass before me. “Melanie Erin Laurent,” he says, holding me in his steady, intense gaze. “My beauty, my light, my love . . . I have never known the kind of happiness you’ve given me this past year. I’ve never known this feeling of completeness, this whole-hearted faith in another person in all my life. I don’t know how I lived before I had you in my
