Chapter 49
49
PENNY
Ilet out a breathy laugh, dropping my head between my shoulders and shaking it in disbelief.
The truck slowed, then came to a stop. A second later, the door opened and fresh air rushed in against my flushed skin. Two hands reached for mine and carefully helped me to the ground.
I followed blindly, one tentative step at a time, my pulse thrumming with every movement.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“You’ll see soon,” Boone replied, his voice cryptic.
We walked for what felt like forever—boots on gravel, the rustling of grass underfoot, the smell of something sweet lingering in the air—until he stopped and gently let go of my hand.
In his place, a new warmth wrapped around me. Familiar. Immediate. I smiled before he even spoke.
“Hi,” I breathed.
“Hi, Penelope,” Mac said, and God… his voice. That low, husky rasp sent butterflies tumbling through my stomach.
He led me forward a few more steps before stopping.
“Ready?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion.
I nodded eagerly. “Yes,” I laughed, barely able to contain myself.
Mac released my hand, then slipped his fingers beneath the blindfold. Slowly, he lifted it away—and the second my eyes adjusted, I froze.
I had been right. We were at Cassidy Ranch.
But not at the bonfire.
We stood in the doorway of the barn, and it’d been completely transformed.
Warm string lights hung from the rafters, bathing the space in a soft, golden glow. Rose petals had been scattered across the floor in the shape of a giant heart. It was intimate. Dreamlike.
I turned to Mac, my eyes pooling slightly with tears of pure joy.
My jaw might’ve hit the floor because he looked devastatingly good.
He stood proud in an all-black, sinfully tailored suit. His black dress shirt was unbuttoned just enough to reveal the edge of the tattoo on his chest. Cowboy boots grounded the look, but with everything else? He looked like temptation in fabric.
I bit my lip, unable to look away.
“You like what you see, Pen?” he asked, amusement dancing in his eyes.
I nodded slowly, dragging out my reply with a grin. “I do.”
Just then, soft country music filtered through hidden speakers, the kind of song that tugged at your heartstrings and begged for slow dancing.
Mac reached for my hand and walked backward, leading me into the center of the rose petal heart.
His hands settled at my waist instinctively, like they belonged there. My arms draped around his neck as I tilted my head to look up at him.
“I was going to ask if you’d dance with me,” he murmured, “but I guess it’s second nature now.”
“Is this our thing?” I asked quietly.
“I guess so,” he said, smiling down at me. “We’re not really dancers… but somehow, this is what we keep coming back to.”
“Maybe because it gives us an excuse to touch each other?”
Mac chuckled, his voice a warm rumble against my chest. “I’m always looking for a reason to be close to you.”
“This was sweet,” I whispered, my voice barely carrying over the soft hum of the music. “Everything you planned tonight.”
Mac’s lips curved, but there was something unreadable in his expression—something more. “It’s not over,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “I’ve been working on something else.”
I tilted my head, curiosity blooming like wildflowers in my chest.
Still swaying with me, Mac reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out his phone. He kept one arm looped around my waist as he glanced down at the screen. I followed his gaze and saw a long string of text in his notes app—paragraphs. Plural.
My eyes flicked back to his, breath catching.
“I’m gonna read something I wrote,” he said, his voice low and nervous. “Because I didn’t want to fuck this up.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump forming in my throat, already blinking against the tears threatening to fall.
Mac cleared his throat.
“Penelope,” he began, “these last few months have been the best months of my life. Getting to know you—your mind, your heart, and yes, your body.” He paused, lifting his gaze to meet mine, and gave me a quick, teasing wink. “Has been time I’d relive a thousand times over.
“From the moment we sat around that bonfire last year, I knew I was going to make you mine. Whether it was just one night or multiple, I knew I’d have a piece of you. But deep down, I think I always knew… it was never just going to be one night. You were my undoing before you even said a damn word. Then you opened that beautiful mouth and my God…”
I laughed, the sound breaking free as I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to his chest for a second, my smile soaking into the fabric of his shirt.
Mac’s voice softened, his tone shifting with regret. “Then I fucked it all up. I was stupid. Naive. I thought a woman as fierce, beautiful, and strong as you would just… come back to me. That I’d be forgiven without doing the work. I waited. Hoped. Thought maybe I could coast and get back what we had.”
He shook his head.
“But you didn’t let me off that easily, and thank God you didn’t. You showed me that love isn’t easy. It’s earned. You made me better, Pen. You made me want to be better. And you deserve that. You deserve all the attention, the intention. You deserve to be seen. Fought for. Worshipped.”
He stopped reading then, locking his phone and slipping it back into his pocket with care, as if what he’d just said didn’t even scratch the surface.
Mac’s hands came up to cradle my face, and we stopped moving. The music faded in my ears as everything narrowed to just him. His touch. His gaze. His words.
“You’re not just a part of my future, Penelope,” he said, his voice raw, trembling with everything he felt. “You are my future. You’re the reason I want to build something more. The reason behind every choice I’ll make from here on out. You’re my beginning and my end. My everything.”
And that was it—the dam broke.
Tears spilled over, streaking my cheeks as I clutched at his jacket. His words were a balm and a wound all at once. Too much and still somehow not enough.
“I am so fucking in love with you, Penelope Hudson, that it hurts,” he said, his eyes burning into mine. “I am a man wrecked because of it, because nothing will ever compare to you. I’m completely, irrevocably yours.”
He lifted my hand, turned it palm-up, and pressed a kiss to the tip of my pinky finger.
“You have me wrapped around…”
He kissed the next finger. “Every.”
Then the next. “Damn.”
Another kiss. “One.”
And another. “Of your…”
His lips pressed to my thumb, lingering there as he looked up at me with a tender smile that shattered the last of my composure.
“Fingers.”
“Oh, Mac…” I breathed, my heart pounding so hard it echoed in my ears.
His eyes searched mine, warm and vulnerable, his voice barely above a whisper. “I hope I’ve done enough.”
“You have,” I said softly, a smile tugging at my lips. “I love you. I’ve loved you for far longer than I admitted. I never stopped. Not when everything fell apart, not even when I tried so hard to avoid you. I never lost this spark, the one that ignites every time I’m near you.”
Mac exhaled, the breath of a man who’d been holding on, waiting. He pressed his forehead to mine, his touch gentle, grounding.
“You make me feel a way I never had,” I confessed. Never once in my life have I experienced genuine, unconditional love like this before. Someone who spent weeks planning and plotting all on the hope that things would change.
“I meant it when I said I’d do anything for you, Penny,” he murmured, voice rough with feeling.
I tilted my head and caught his lips in a kiss—urgent, aching, deep. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was a declaration, a surrender, a promise sealed in the press of our mouths. It redefined every kiss that came before because this one… this one meant everything.
It was love.
It was forever.
A loud pop exploded behind us, startling me so much that I jumped back, clutching Mac’s chest in surprise.
I spun around, only to find all our friends standing near the barn doors, each holding a confetti cannon, grinning like fools. Pink glitter rained down from the rafters in a sparkling, slow-motion storm of celebration.
“Oh my God,” I gasped with a breathless laugh, my chest shaking as the confetti drifted around us like magic.
I looked up, spinning slowly in the glowing barn light, glitter clinging to my hair and shoulders. “The pink glitter?” I called, turning back to Mac with wide, amused eyes.
He was grinning, full and wide, as he gazed up at the shimmering sky of color. “How could I not? It was pretty iconic.”
The barn erupted with cheers, whistles, and the unmistakable sound of love being celebrated by those who knew us best.
I looked around at the faces of our friends—beaming, laughing, holding up their phones and clapping like proud witnesses to something real.
Something right.
And then I looked at Mac.
My heart swelled so full it felt like it might burst, overflowing with gratitude and a joy that left me breathless.
I had my people.
I had him.
What did I ever do to deserve this kind of love?
Whatever it was, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.