My lips pulled to the side. I felt exactly the same, which was why I didn’t want to go back down the trail yet. Up here, in the dark, where there was nobody and nothing else, there was just me and Kinsley.
Where I could pretend like this wasn’t all a secret, like we weren’t hiding our relationship from everyone else.
By hiding up here, we didn’t have to hide us.
“That’s how I feel,” I said softly, tucking her hair away again. “With you. Nothing else exists when I’m with you.”
She dipped her head, briefly breaking eye contact, and I knew she was blushing. I reached out and cupped her chin, drawing her attention back to me. Even though it was dark, almost pitch-black, I could still see the shine in her eyes.
Kinsley covered my hand with hers. “We can do this, can’t we?”
“We’re not going there again, are we?”
“No, I mean… We can do this. No matter what my brother says or what anyone else thinks. We can make this work.”
The rain had stopped, so I took the umbrella from her and closed it before I put it down on the other side of the log that we’d all long used as a bench.
Then, leaning down, I rested my hands either side of her face and looked down at her. “Kins, I promise you that I’ll do everything I can to make this work. No matter what your brother says. No matter what anyone says. I don’t give a fuck about anyone else. I only care about you.”
“It’s going to be really hard, isn’t it? Like, being up here, it’s just reminded me how easy it should be, but it’s not like that normally.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be hard, but all relationships are. It doesn’t mean they’re not worth it. The things that matter the most to you are always the hardest.” I brushed my thumbs over her soft, cold cheeks, and lowered my face to hers so our noses brushed. “And you have no idea how long I’ve wanted this. To be here with you. Like this. How hard it’s been to never do anything about how I felt. But now I have, and there isn’t a damn thing in this world that feels more worth it than this moment right here.”
I felt the bob as her throat swallowed.
“Do you love me?”
They were the quietest words I’d ever heard her speak. Like she was more terrified of asking than she was of me answering.
Impossible. There was no right answer to that question.
Not yet.
“I don’t know,” I lied, tilting my head so my nose brushed her cheek and my hand cupped the back of her neck. “Maybe. Maybe not.” I kissed her cheek. “Not yet.”
Lies. Lies. Lies.
I am so in love with her it fucking hurts.
But she didn’t need to hear that right now.
She needed to hear what she wanted to hear.
I moved and my lips grazed her ear. “I don’t have to be in love with you right now to know that you’re the only person I want to be with.” My lips ghosted along her jaw until they hovered above her parted ones. “But I know that I will. One day. When you’ve let down the last wall you’ve got built up, that’ll be it for me.”
“I don’t have a wall.”
“You do. A little one. And that’s okay.” I gently kissed her.
“Oh, God. It’s the shape of my brother, isn’t it?”
I laughed and touched my forehead to hers. “Way to ruin the moment.”
She sat back with a grimace. “Sorry. Shall we go now or stay a little longer?”
“It’s quiet. It’s not raining. The clouds have cleared. I think we should ignore the world a little longer.”
She dropped her head back and looked up at the sky. “Wow. I forgot how beautiful it was up here.”
Wow indeed. The wonder that stretched across her face was more beautiful than the sparkling of the stars in the sky as the clouds cleared, and I did the only thing I wanted to do right in that moment.
I lay down on my back, using my duffel bag as a pillow, and patted my chest. She jerked around to look at me, and her face lit up when she realized what I was telling her to do.
Kinsley crawled over and lay down next to me. The blanket was on the wetter side, but so were we. It didn’t matter a bit as she curled into my side, rested her head on my shoulder, and we looked up at the night sky as the clouds really moved to unfurl its beauty.
I wrapped my arm around her and rested my cheek against the top of her head. I reveled in the sensation of her against me. I wasn’t sure this was a feeling that would ever get old, and if it did…
Well, I needed a slap upside the head.
I just hoped this feeling would never, ever go away.
***
I watched as the sign at the end of the street was changed from ‘FOR SALE’ to ‘SOLD,’ and a smile crept across my face.
The house really was Colton’s, then.
It was a bittersweet sight. I knew that meant he’d done two things: called the realtor and confirmed he was going ahead with the purchase… And broken up with Amber.
I hadn’t seen him all day at work. He’d been gone before I’d left this morning, and I assumed that had been so he could go home, shower, and get ready for work. He’d never showed, so he’d likely called in sick while he sorted his personal life out.
Or, you know.
His hangover.
I let myself into my house and tossed my jacket to the side. It slumped over the shoe rack and onto the floor, but I groaned and ignored it as I turned to the kitchen. I was starving and exhausted from a full day on site, and all I wanted was a coffee, some good food, and a hot shower.
I doubted any of
