37. Goldie
Chapter 37
Goldie
I T’S ELEVEN MINUTES past ten when I screech into a space at the park and kill the engine.
I’m late.
What if he’s not here?
My stomach roils, and I shove it all down. I can’t think about that. He has to still be here. He has to. I jump out of the Jeep and run into the park, side-stepping way more people than it seems would normally be here on a weekday morning. Don’t these people have jobs?
Doesn’t matter.
“Matty!” I call as I get to the clock a moment later, looking around. He’s not here.
And that damn clock shows I’m fifteen minutes late.
“Matty!” I probably sound like an idiot, but never have I cared less. “Where are you?”
There. I catch a glimpse of a black cowboy hat on the far side of the park as the person walks out of sight. That has to be him. I break into a sprint, waving my arms and yelling his name. Please.
He turns.
It’s him.
I keep running, eating up the distance between us as he slowly begins to walk my way.
“Goldie?” The faintest of smiles appears on his handsome face.
“Matty!”
Finally, finally I get to him, crashing into his arms and wrapping him in a hug as he lets out a soft grunt in surprise. “I’m late,” I say into his neck. “I overslept and I turned my volume off because this town never has breaking news and?—”
“You came.” His arms tighten around me.
I want to stay just like this, wrapped in his strong embrace, my face buried against him, breathing him in. But the disbelief and wonder in his voice makes me straighten and meet his beautiful caramel eyes. They’re soft and full of love, and the magnitude of everything that’s happened in the past fifteen minutes finally crashes into me.
This man.
This man.
This wonderful, ridiculous, kind-hearted, pseudo-cowboy man. “I love you, too,” I say, my voice cracking. “Of course I love you.”
The smile that blooms across his face is bright enough to rival the sun. “You do?”
God, my heart. “I do.” We hug again. I never want to go this long without the feel of his body against my own again.
He pulls away, taking my hand and guiding us to a nearby bench. “I have more to say.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I face him on the bench, tucking one leg up and reaching for his hands.
“It does to me.” He takes a deep breath, his gaze running the length of my body and back again. Amusement flickers in his eyes. “You really did just roll out of bed, didn’t you?”
I swat at him. “I told you. Agatha was banging on my window like a crazy woman.”
“I’m glad she did.”
God, I missed his voice. I missed him. “Me, too.”
He blows out another breath. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you, and I’m sorry for being an oblivious asshole. I was scared, Goldie. Scared that you’d get tired of me and realize you could have a life full of excitement and adventure without me weighing you down. Hell, I still am, but I’m working on that. You were”—he swallows— “too good to be true. You still are. I mean, there was no way it should have been as easy as it was with us. Who grows up together and then finds each other on a blind date app?” He laughs sadly.
“But we did,” I whisper.
He looks at me with such tenderness. “We did. And all I could think about at first was how mad Willa would be, and of course, she gave me about ten tons of crap when she found out?—”
“Yeah.” I smile wryly. “She was surprised for about ten seconds, then wanted to know everything.”
He chuckles. “Sounds like our Willa.”
“She also made sure to tell me she didn’t want to hear any juicy details about us in the bedroom.”
He leans forward and cups my face, bringing us inches apart beneath the brim of his hat. “I missed you so much.” When his lips meet mine, firm and soft all at once, it’s like coming home.
I sigh into the kiss, melting against him like I always do, and whining a little when he pulls away a minute later.
Laughing, he leans back and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “We’re in public, Golden.”
Golden.
“Tell me more,” I urge.
“More?”
“Don’t you have more groveling to do?”
He snaps his fingers. “Right. I do.” He shifts on the bench and meets my gaze once more. “I was a complete and total idiot. I didn’t see what was right in my face, which was you , ready to love me for me, ready to give us a shot. I couldn’t imagine being that lucky.”
“Well, we live in Lucky,” I grin. “Why wouldn’t we be?”
“Tell me you forgive me,” he says. “Because I love you so much. You’re the only girl for me. I was an idiot never to see it all these years, a blind idiot not to realize it was you at the ball, and the biggest idiot to turn my back on you the second someone questioned whether this was real.”
“About that?—”
He puts a finger to my lips with a tender smile. “Let me finish. Ox and Reid weren’t out to make me feel bad, and they weren’t trying to make me second-guess anything. I’m the one who fell apart at the tiniest bit of questioning, and that’s on me. Reid asked if this was serious, and I couldn’t answer him. But being without you for even a few days showed me just how precious you are. How much you mean to me. How you’ve infiltrated every single part of my life, and how much I love having you in it. Without you, my days are dull and dark. You are my sunshine. I don’t ever want to be without you again. Will you forgive me?”
I swallow back the lump in my throat and nod. “Of course I do.”
He stands up and pulls me to him. “I love you.” He lifts me off the ground and swings me around, whoops and cheers sounding in the distance.
“Do we have an audience?”
“Do you think Ox and Reid would have it any other way?” he counters, winking beneath the brim of his hat.
“Good point.” I look up at him, reveling in his adoring smile. “Take me home, cowboy.”