CHAPTER 45
THREE WORDS
Hours later, my spirits lifted when I saw a light on in a cabin. This had to be the one. There was nothing else out here, but the numbers on the mailbox at the end of the endless driveway were smudged, and I couldn’t be sure.
I knocked frantically on the cabin door, and I nearly cried when I saw Chuck’s rugged face.
“Please tell me Grant’s here.”
“Pen? What are you ... you made it all the way out here in that?” He pointed to the storm. “At this hour?”
“Grant’s asleep in the guest room.” A gorgeous woman with flawless dark skin pulled me into the neat but rustic room, where a fire roared and a golden retriever excitedly wagged its tail. “Come in, come in.”
“Pen, this is Celia, my wife,” Chuck said.
“I’m going to get you some dry clothes,” Celia said, and she left the room before I could tell her that I didn’t need dry clothes.
“Where’s the guest room? I need to talk to him.”
A door opened in the hallway fifteen feet away from me.
That face.
That was what I’d driven two hundred miles in the rain to see. That face. Home.
My chest rose and fell, but that was all the time I let pass. I didn’t wait for him to move.
I ran.
I threw my wet arms around him, and he lifted me off my feet. Then I pulled back and kissed his mouth, a deep kiss that served as the preamble to the next thing I planned to do.
When he set me back down, I didn’t let go. I was never letting go. I grabbed that face between my hands. “Are you listening?”
He tipped his head forward.
“I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.” My voice trailed off in a whisper. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.”