He holds me. Tightly as if to say, “I’m never letting you go.”
But he still says nothing, only tightening the hold. A heartbeat passes before his head falls onto my shoulder, pressing his lips to it.
“There’s no way he ever loved you as much as I do right now,” he whispers.
My head rears back, eyes widening at his admission. Suddenly feeling lightheaded, as my heart hammers in my ribcage. Did Griffin Barlow just?—
“Or tomorrow,” he adds with a shrug.
“You w-what?”
“I love you, Blair,” he repeats, bringing himself eye level with me. “I love you and I’m no longer afraid to tell you. My mind is set onyou. I wanted to tell you back at the ranch. Truthfully, I think I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now.”
My lips part on their own, while my mind spins with the words he says. I have to remove my eyes from his boring into mine because both of us have been through hell and back in our past relationships. The word has been ringing in my ear myself, but I’ve been too guarded to let myself say it again.
Griffin brings his hand to rest under my chin, urging me to look at him. “I want to fight for you on all the worst days. I want to laugh with you on all your best days. I want to dance in the kitchen with you when there’s no music playing and see the stars with you in the bed of my truck any chance we get. But most of all…” He pauses, swallowing past the emotions. “I don’t ever want to give you a reason to need to give me a second chance.”
I blink, and the dam behind my eyes breaks. Moisture gathers in the corners and I’m ready to break down completely in front of this man.
“I know the timing isn’t right to say this after everything?—”
“I love you too,” I cut him off, hands coming to cup both sides of his face. “I didn’t move here to find this. I came to Bluestone Lakes to find myself because I felt like I kept losing pieces of who I was deep down throughout my past. Tiny pieces being chipped away day by day,” I say, shaking my head as if to remove the memory. “You were the most unexpected thing to happen, because, in the process of finding myself, I ended up finding home. In this town, and most importantly, in you.”
He pulls me back into him before the final word leaves my lips.
My vision becomes hazy as the tears build up more and more.
“Never did I believe that the dreams I once had to build a life…build a home…with someone would be on the table again for me,” he breathes out against my hair. “I put that dream in the past, buried it with the memories of things out of reach.”
It’s more real now than ever before.
Pulling out of his hold, he eyes me in confusion. I stare up at him, blinking and bringing my bottom lip between my teeth while I silently beg him to seal the deal.
His eyebrows pinch in confusion.
“Are you going to kiss me or not, cowboy?”
The smile on his lips tells me that’s not what he was expecting. His hand grips my hips while his other reaches to cup the side of my jaw, allowing his thumb to caress the apple of my cheek. My head melts into his light touch.
“You should know by now, I’ll give you whatever you want, sweetheart.”
“Then you better kiss me,” I say quickly.
His lips crash into mine with a searing kiss. Sealing the words we just spoke moments ago as the final piece to make everything real.
My hands grip his flannel, pulling him into me before they wrap around his neck and tangle in his already messy hair. Reaching up on my toes, he moves to lift me and I wrap my legs around him in a tight hold, not once releasing the kiss.
This kiss is messy.
This kiss is wild.
This kiss is free.
It’s as free and wild as I want the future to be for us.
Panting against my skin, he sets me down on my feet. Griffin looks down at me, and I swear I stop breathing. A feeling I will never get used to looking at him, or the way he’s looking at me. But something pulls his attention from the corner of his eyes. We both turn to find Nan standing outside of the barn. When she notices us looking, she starts clapping.
We both fall into a fit of laughter as he intertwines his hand in mine, guiding me to where Nan stands by the barn. His hand feels like it was made to fit mine and I want to stay in this happy bubble.
