Chapter 37 #2
“Mm-hmm.” My lashes flutter, and my lips part.
But instead of waiting for him to kiss me, I launch myself into the air, confident that he’ll catch me, and press my mouth to his.
I’m done waiting for what I want, and I offer no apologies for it.
And this kiss is different. It’s not the desperate or hungry ones that felt like we had something to prove. This kiss is slow. Soft. Intentional—like we have all the time in the world.
Our eavesdroppers are all but forgotten when he holds me to him, my legs wrapped around his waist. I can feel his heart syncing to mine, steady and strong.
All those years I spent wondering if it was still beating at all.
And here, in this moment, we hand ourselves over to the only thing we’ve ever truly wanted—love.
Before he can deepen the kiss, I pat his chest. “We have an audience.”
“I know,” he says. “I can see Agnes poking Sterling in the chest. We should probably go ho—”
I groan before he can finish that sentence. “Chief showed you the blueprints, didn’t he?” When I wiggle, Valen slowly lowers me to my feet.
“How did you know that?”
“The text tree has no secrets.” I grin. “Also, on the drive home, Savvy tried to sell me her half for two hundred dollars, but I want you to know that I refused her offer. I can’t afford to buy her out right now.
Writing has been…hard lately, and she put a lot of work into her home. She deserves to get what it’s worth.”
“Agreed,” Valen says. “And she’ll get fair market value, but I think you’re forgetting something.”
“What?” I frown. I’m so tired, I’m sure there’s a whole laundry list of things I’m forgetting.
“Well, for starters, I’m a Harrington heir. I have more money than we could ever spend.”
I’m shaking my head before he even finishes his sentence.
“And more importantly,” he says as our family starts to join us. “You, Clover, are the O’Connell heir. You also have more money than you could ever spend in a lifetime. Billions, to be exact.”
“Holy fuck.” Savvy swats Greyson’s hands away from her when he tries to help her into her wheelchair. “How many damn billionaires can we have in one tiny town?”
“No,” I say. Agent Lamott’s words are coming back to me now, but I’m still unsure of how to feel about it. “That’s. No. I can’t even write O’Connell in cursive. There’s no way I could ever sign a check with their money.”
“Actually,” Grant says, plucking pieces of the bushes off his button-down.
“Agent Lamott and I are working on having it all transferred into your new legal name. Mom was managing your family wealth for years via a trust. You are the O’Connell heir, Clover.
We’re already working with our family attorneys. Who are also your family attorneys.”
“Family attorneys,” I mumble. “That’s…”
“Freaking amazing,” Madi laughs. “Clover! That means you don’t have to write what your editor wants anymore. You can write for you, what you love.”
My head swims with all these new details that look like dollar signs.
“Too much all at once?” Valen asks with an easy smile.
I nod and feel the pressure in my head easing.
“These are just details, Honeybee. We have a lifetime to sort them out.”
“That means you’re really doing it?” I ask, hating that I still need confirmation, but also accepting that this is who I am. “You’re moving here? To Happiness? And all my mismatched furniture, throw pillows, and collection of snow globes won’t bother you?”
“If you’ll have me. But that reminds me. Wait here—just one second.”
I laugh with my whole body as he runs toward his SUV. “Valen, I’ve been waiting for you for fourteen years. I think I can wait one more second.”
He’s back before I finish speaking with a plastic bag in his hands. When he’s in front of me, he reaches into the bag and pulls out a…snow globe.
“I saw it on our road trip,” he says sheepishly. “I never got the chance to give it to you.”
“At the bookstore.” My voice is breathy and full of wonder.
He bought me a snow globe.
Valen presses a button on the bottom of it, and the sparkly glitter swirls to life around a stack of books.
It’s perfect.
“You won’t mind having a roommate who never turns the lights off, fills every inch of the bathroom counter with stuff, and sometimes shakes all her snow globes just to see them all sparkle?”
“That all sounds perfect to me, except for one thing. A roommate, Clover? Really?”
“Roommate,” I laugh. “Partner. Person I yell at when he leaves the toilet seat up.” I press to my toes and kiss him just because I can. “The only man I love—”
He catches my face in his hands and holds me there, staring at me as though I’m the only person who matters.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for the years I’ve missed,” he says. “I’ll be here for every nightmare, every panic attack, every moment you need someone to hold your hand. I’ll learn how to be still. How to stay. How to be the kind of man who deserves you.”
“You already are, Valen,” I whisper. “You always were. You just forgot for a little while.”
His eyes soften, like a door that’s been locked for twenty years finally cracking open. I watch the moment he decides to believe in himself, in us, and the guilt he’s been carrying no longer defines him.
The sky opens around us, the rain coming down in thick sheets that send our friends and family running for cover.
“We have one more thing to check off your list, Honeybee.”
I frown in confusion as my friends cheer behind him on the porch.
“It’s raining,” he says.
I blink up at him.
“Dancing in the rain,” he whispers, before taking my hand and guiding me down the steps. “It’s on your list, so we have to do it.” His words are so soft, so gentle, I can’t get a hold of my emotions.
The rain soaks us instantly. It’s cold. Shocking. Perfect.
“There’s no music,” I point out.
“I’m not singing again.” He chuckles as his fingers tighten around mine.
“You faked being a terrible singer at karaoke.” I gasp as the cold rain soaks through my sweater.
“So?” He spins me away from him, and my face naturally tilts toward the sky. “We don’t need music, Honeybee. I’m always tuned in to the beat of you.”
He spins me back, and I slam into his chest with a thud and a dull roar from our audience.
“Dance with me.” It’s not a request. It’s a dare. A prayer. A hope.
His arm snakes behind me, pulling me close. One hand at my waist, the other cradling mine against his shoulder.
We sway in the rain-soaked driveway of my best friend’s inn. It’s clumsy and awkward and the very best moment of my entire life.
“This is crazy,” I say, my laughter loud, rising above the torrential rain.
“Completely.” He smiles down at me with more love than I ever hoped to receive shining in his gaze.
“We’re going to catch pneumonia.”
“Probably, but I think that’s a myth.”
“Is it worth it?” What I really mean is, am I worth it, and he knows it. But it’s not insecurity he hears in my tone—it’s forgiveness. It’s satisfaction. It’s love.
He holds my gaze, cutting through the darkness, the rain, the fear I’ve lived in. “It’s worth everything, Clover.”
He kisses me this time, and it’s to the sound of sniffles and choked tears of the family supporting us.
I spent so long being afraid. Afraid of being found, of being known, of loving someone and losing them. I built walls and counted rituals and convinced myself that safety meant being apart.
But safety isn’t being alone—that’s what he’s taught me.
Safety is this. Dancing in the rain, surrounded by love, wrapped in the arms of a man who chose his happiness…and mine.
And now, we’ll build our forever home—together.