Then he made her squeal by darting forward and tugging her from her resting spot, snagging her around the waist and carting her into the bathroom and straight into the shower before setting her down again.
“What if I don’t want to-”
“Duck or get sprayed.” He flipped on the water levers and the three big shower heads all burst into life at the same time, just as she dove behind his back to keep from getting hit full force in the face. And to think the drenching shower spas had been her idea.
Although as the water turned hotter and the steam started to rise, she had to admit it had been a pretty damn good one.
“Mmm,” was as articulate as she could get as the pulsing spray thrummed along her back and shoulders.
Brett turned and pulled her into his arms so they were both positioned in a way to get the maximum effect from the opposite end shower heads. “Agreed,” he said, and tipped up her chin to kiss her. “Did I mention that I miss you?”
She smiled against his wet mouth as water beat down on her head and ran down her cheeks. She was certain she had nothing on a drowned rat at the moment, but since he didn’t seem to care, neither did she. “I think you made that pretty clear a few moments ago,” she said. “Almost tempting to go a few more days apart just to see what that reunion would be like, but I’m not sure I could survive the bliss.”
He chuckled, and when she blinked the water from her lashes to look at him, she could only think how purely happy he looked. She knew what that felt like.
“Kirby,” he said, turning her just slightly so he blocked the water from her head and face. “Bliss is exactly what I’m feeling right now.”
“Good to know the shower spa was a wise investment, then.”
He smiled but ran his fingertips over her lips, making her shudder and her body leap right back to life again, which should have been anatomically impossible at that moment. But clearly was not.
“I wasn’t talking about the shower spa, wonderful as it is. I was talking about you. Us. This.”
She blinked a few more times, though it wasn’t water from the shower getting in her lashes this time. He really wasn’t going to do this now, here. Was he? The “it’s been incredible and you’re amazing, I’m going to miss you” speech? Now? Here? She wasn’t ready. Not yet. Not so soon after…
“Kirby,” he said, his finger still pressed to the fullest part of her bottom lip.
Which was now quivering, despite her best efforts not to. God, seriously, and she was supposedly the mature one here?
His expression had grown serious. “What’s wrong? Too much, too soon? I know it’s a lot, but I can’t…I mean, I know I should probably pull back, go slow, or more slowly, but…God, there’s just so much there. So much more than I thought. And today…it all kind of came together and crystallized, and I couldn’t wait to tell you about it. That’s when I knew. I mean, I thought I knew before, missing you, wanting to be here more than anywhere else, all of it. But I couldn’t figure out the rest of the bigger picture. Until today.”
“What are you talking about?” she said, pulling his hand down but unable to make herself pull away when he simply wove his fingers through hers. “Is this that thing you wanted to talk about before?”
“It is. Only I was picturing telling you all about it over a quiet dinner, with wine and candles and no interruptions. Somehow we ended up here instead.”
“Imagine that,” she said dryly, and not unkindly. He was too excited about whatever the hell it was he had to tell her for her to be upset, even if she was going to come out the loser at the end of it all. He was simply too pure, too genuine, and what you saw with Brett Hennessey was definitely what you got. And it was just so much. And all so good.
How could she be upset? So what if it felt like one good tap and her heart would shatter into a million tiny pieces? She’d put it back together and move on. She was a champ at moving on. It was just…for all she thought she’d loved before, or wanted to love, nothing had come close to tapping into the part of her that Brett had so effortlessly reached with just a smile, a laugh, a twinkle in the eye. Could she have fallen that hard, that fast? She would have said no…but it was hard to break a heart that hadn’t been given.
“I found a house,” he said, looking like a kid on Christmas morning.
“You-what?” She hadn’t a clue what he was going to say, except that wasn’t even close to it. “Were you looking for one?”
“No. I took off today, on my bike, so I could get away from the resort, the folks, everything, and just try and sort out what I wanted.”
“Hasn’t that been the point of your whole journey?”
“Yes…but this is the first time I was finally in a place that I didn’t want to leave.”
Her heart started thumping, so loudly that between the shower and the thrumming in her ears, she couldn’t hear him. “You…want to stay? Here?”
The ultimate grin that had been on his face a mere moment ago froze for a second, then faded. “I-maybe I presumed too much. I should have talked to you first, I know, it was just…you’d rather I not stay?”
Her eyes widened. “No! I mean”-she paused, trying to calm herself down before she blew this-“I knew you probably wouldn’t, so I’ve been sort of trying to keep myself prepared for when you left. You’ve been here longer than I thought in the beginning, because of the event, and it’s made it really difficult to not…” She trailed off, knowing if she tried to explain even a fraction of her growing feelings for him, he would run fast and far. And she wouldn’t blame him. No one spouted stuff like that only a few weeks after meeting someone. Even if they had pretty much been living together since about eight hours after laying eyes on one another.
God, when she thought it through like that it all sounded more than a little crazy and unstable. Only it had always felt anything but. Being with him, from the very first moment, had been easy and good and normal. And perfect.
He tipped her chin up so their gazes met.
“It’s been too good to be true,” she told him. “And I’m not the same lucky son of a bitch you are. Stuff like that doesn’t generally go the way I’d like it to.”
There was so much in his expression she didn’t know if she dared allow herself to believe in it. There was hope, and joy, and this kind of deep well of affection she’d never seen directed at her, not like this.
“Well, I am. And I know when to hold and when to fold.” He tugged her closer. “Kirby, I know I rolled into town and into your life without so much as a plan for my own. Not the best of situations to get yourself tangled up with, given how hard you’ve worked to get where you are to put roots down here. I knew I wanted to put down roots, to start building something to last a lifetime…I just didn’t know it would be here. And I didn’t know it would be with you.”
Okay, now her heart was simply going to burst. “What are you saying?”
“Were you planning on my leaving?”
“I thought it was a given.”
“How would you feel if I didn’t? If I stayed? I’m not saying I have to stay here, underfoot. I know we’ve kind of gone about this whole thing backward, and I’m not asking for some kind of commitment up front. Okay, maybe that’s wrong, maybe I am. Because I don’t want to share you. Or wait. But I am willing to work from the start, and build on this the right way. Whatever the hell way that is.”
“What are you saying, Brett?”
“I’m saying I want to stay here. I know what I want to do, and I’ve already found the first step in making it happen.”
“The house?”
“Not just any house. Kirby, wait until you see it. I wanted so badly for you to be there when I discovered it. I want your advice and input. In fact, I’d like you to help me with the whole project.”
“Project?”
He tipped his head back and let the water thrum on his face; then he shook it off and looked back at her. “I know I’m not making any sense.”
She shook her head slowly, but that smile, that same one that wouldn’t go away in the bathroom earlier when she wanted so badly to get her perspective back, spread across her face again. “But you’re awfully damn cute about whatever it is that’s got you so excited. And to answer the one question you did ask that I did understand…” She reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand and slid it around so that her fingers wove into the wet curls plastered against the back of his neck. “I don’t mind you staying. Here, in this other place, in a tent for all I care.
