Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
LEIF
I t was my last day in Tennessee and I desperately didn’t want to leave Laurel, but I packed my bags anyway. I had to go home and back to work, whether I wanted to or not.
Laurel sat on the bed in my hotel room, her legs crossed as she leaned against the headboard, hugging a pillow on her lap. Her dark eyes tracked me as I moved around the suite, checking that I wasn’t leaving anything behind. She sighed as I zipped up my bag.
“Christmas can’t come fast enough,” she said, a sad shimmer in her eyes as she drank me in from across the king-sized bed. “I know it’s less than three weeks out, but that feels like a lifetime right now.”
“We’ll be back together in Austin before you know it.” I climbed onto the bed, crawling over to lay a long, lingering kiss on her lips. “I know it’s not going to be fun, but it’s worth it, right?”
“Definitely,” she agreed, thankfully without any hesitation. She caught my face in her palms where I sat on my knees in front of her, her eyes blazing into mine. “I’m not second-guessing this at all, Leif. You never, ever have to worry about that. Being with you is worth every agonizing hour that we’ll be apart. I’m just not looking forward to the separation, is all.”
“Neither am I,” I admitted, my heart pulsating in my chest at the strength of her words.
If I was being honest, I had been worrying about whether she was as into this as I was, but Laurel had never been as comfortable as I was with speaking words. Writing them was much more her speed, and as I looked into her eyes right now, I was left with zero doubt that she felt as strongly about us as I did.
I was sure I’d be getting it confirmed in writing just as soon as I was gone. Her texts were awesome. I smiled and leaned closer to her. “We’ll talk every day. We’ll text. We’ll email. Hell, I’ll send carrier pigeons if you want me to, but we’ll be okay.”
She smiled, her fingers dancing across my jaw. “I’d feel too sorry for the pigeons in this weather, but maybe in the summer?”
I laughed, nodding before I pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Deal. We’ll revisit the pigeons in the summer, but for now, I need to get going. My pilot is waiting. Are you sure you don’t just want me to get an Uber?”
“No, I’m sure. I’ll take you to the airport. You coming to the bookstore to surprise me when you landed was amazing, but I want this last bit of time with you.”
Our gazes locked and I sighed, really fucking hating the thought of leaving her. “Okay, let’s go. Before I decide to stay.”
“Would you?” she asked lightly. “Decide to stay, I mean.”
I chuckled, backing away from her and finally breaking eye contact to climb off the bed before I did something stupid. “I’d love to, bug, but I can’t. At most, I’d be able to stay tonight, but I’d have to leave in time to get to the office as we open tomorrow morning. My first meeting is at eight.”
“I know, but again, it was worth a shot.” She rolled off the bed too, grabbed her handbag, and strode to the door. “Plus, you’re having dinner with Jack tonight, right?”
I nodded. “We need to get caught up before the morning. The client I’m seeing first thing is a guy we’ve both been working with and there have been some developments since I last sat down with him myself.”
She grimaced. “Yikes, so it really is straight back to work for you, huh?”
“Yep.” I followed her to the door, taking one last look around before I left the suite for the last time. On this visit, anyway. When I came back to Franklin, I’d definitely stay here again unless I was at Laurel’s. “You were pretty busy at the store today yourself. It looks like the pre-Christmas traffic is already picking up.”
She chuckled. “I still can’t believe you sat there all day, but it usually starts around this time of year. All the early birds getting their shopping done before the real rush starts. Plus, a lot of people pre-ordered those book boxes, so they had to come and collect them.”
“It was fun,” I said, and I meant it. “I got to spend time with you where you’re at your happiest, and I got to know Grace a little better. That’s a win in my books.”
I’d also managed to get a bit of work done on my laptop while I was there. Laurel even joined me, fitting in a writing sprint when the foot traffic in the store was in a lull.
She drove me to the airport and slowed outside the departure terminal, tears in her eyes as the car rolled to a stop. “I guess this is it.”
“This is it,” I agreed, but before I got out, I turned to face her and pulled her closer to me, sealing my lips over hers for one last long, lingering kiss. When it finally slowed to a natural end, the words were burning the tip of my tongue and I let them free, not wanting to regret not saying them in person before I left.
“I love you, Laurel.”
She blinked a few times in surprise and my heart jolted as I wondered how she was going to react, but the next thing I knew, she was smiling from ear to ear and her hand slid around the nape of my neck to hold me in place.
“I love you, too.” She brought her forehead to mine, inhaling deeply before she kissed the tip of my nose. “I love you, Leif. I’m pretty sure I always have, even when we were apart, but I also know that I always will. I feel like everything that has happened this year happened for a reason.”
My heart did some crazy shit it’d never done before, a fierce determination rolling through me to make her mine. For good. “You’re it for me, bug. Everything that happened this year did happen for a reason. We were always meant to be together. We just got sidetracked for a little while.”
“I’m glad we’re back on track,” she murmured against my lips, fat tears welling in her eyes as she pulled away from me. “You should go now. Otherwise I’m going to lock the doors and take you back to Franklin with me.”
I chuckled. “I wish. Bye, beautiful. I love you and I miss you already.”
With a deep sigh and without looking back at her for fear I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to leave if I saw her again, I got out of her car, grabbed my stuff, and strode into the airport building. There were no bombs going off and no tragedies occurring anywhere around me, yet it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, leaving her and walking to the plane alone. I felt her absence rising like a tide from deep inside me, threatening to suck me in and drown me.
The whole plane ride, I thought about her and our time together first in Austin and now in Franklin. As I sipped my drink, staring absently at the gray skies and clouds outside the windows, I realized that she was the girl I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.
I’d found the woman I wanted to marry when we’d been children. All this time, I just hadn’t known it, but she’d been right there all along. Right in front of me.
Sure, as teenagers and especially after we’d finally started dating, we’d joked about it. Everyone had told us how perfect we were for each other and how they were sure we’d end up tying the knot. Back then though, it’d all seemed to be so far in the future.
A distant someday that’d had so little bearing on our lives at the time that I hadn’t ever given it any real thought. It’d always felt something future me might get to live, not present me.
Now here I was, suddenly twenty-nine years old and thinking for the first time about what a marriage between Laurel and I could look like. Logistically, it wouldn’t be easy, but I knew I still wanted it.
In fact, when I envisioned my future now, I couldn’t picture it without her. I contemplated that on my way home, constantly glancing to the side to look at her only to remember that she wasn’t there anymore.
After I landed back in Denver, I headed to my place to drop off my stuff. I walked into my apartment. As I crossed the threshold, the deafening silence almost knocked me right off my feet. In Tennessee, it’d felt like there was always country music in the background. Somewhere, somehow, some way, I’d gotten so used to it in less than four days that I felt a little disoriented now that I’d realized it was missing.
Another thing that was suddenly staring me right in the face was how clinical my apartment was. Everything had been brand spanking new when I’d moved in, and I’d spent so little time here since that it still was.
Chrome. Glass. White.
Is this really my life?
I dragged my fingers through my hair as I stood in my empty bedroom, my suitcase still packed on my bed. I couldn’t believe the lack of color and character as I looked around, wondering how the hell I’d missed it before. My place might as well have been a show house for all the personality I’d injected into it in the years I’d been living here.
Already late to meet my brother, I left my modern but depressing apartment alone again, heading out for dinner with Jack at one of the trendiest restaurants in town, but it was also our comfort food place. They served up traditional American cuisine with a twist, the space funky and playful, and the open-concept kitchen creating a great, homey vibe.
Jack was waiting for me at the bar, where we would also be eating. He grinned when he saw me, dark hair damp after a recent shower—inevitably taken to wash off sweat generated by some or other sporting activity.
I loved my brother, but he was obsessed. Shaking my head at him, I took a seat on the stool beside his and nodded my thanks for the whiskey he had waiting for me. “What was it tonight?”
“Indoor skiing,” he said. “I figured it was time to brush up on my skills before we hit the slopes.”
I chuckled. “As if you would’ve suddenly forgotten how to do it, but it sounds like a good time. I haven’t done that for a while.”
“It was great,” he said, turning on his stool to face me. “How was Tennessee? You’re looking a little bummed.”
“That’s because I’m in love with Laurel.”
He laughed. “Oh, is that all?”
I flipped him off, chuckling around the smooth liquid in my mouth after taking a generous sip of my drink. Once I’d swallowed it, I shrugged. “That’s not all, actually. I love her and I want to propose to her on Christmas. What do you think?”
Jack’s chin dropped, his lips parting as he stared at me like I could’ve knocked him off his chair with nothing more than the wave of a feather. “You… Wait. Hold up. What?”
“You heard me,” I said, my stomach feeling faintly hollow now that I’d said it out loud, but my chest was getting warmer and fuller by the second as the idea took root. “I love her and I want to marry her. Why wait, right?”
While I was trying really hard not to get ahead of myself here, I couldn’t stop the slew of mental images that flooded my brain. Laurel with an engagement ring on her finger. That dark hair cascading down her back over the white of her wedding dress. Shit, even her stomach swollen with my child.
I swallowed hard and swiped my tongue across my lips. Then I brought my glass up and took another sip of my drink, my heart beating overtime in my chest. “What do you think? Think she’ll say yes?”
“I think we need to get Mom on speaker,” he said slowly. “You’re serious about this, right?”
“I am.” And no one is more surprised about it than me. “I’ll talk to Mom soon, but I asked what you think. Not her.”
“I think we should get Mom on speaker.” He started laughing almost uncontrollably but managed to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. “The only other thing I think is that this has been a long time coming. I’m a little shocked you want to do it so fast, but I guess the other way of looking at it is that it’s already taken you at least seven years longer to wife her than I originally thought it would.”
When he opened Facetime, my eyes widened and I jerked my gaze back to his. “You want me to call Mom here , in the restaurant?”
“Yes,” he said simply. “If you tell her, I’ll know you really mean it. If you don’t, we’ll ignore your moment of insanity and chalk it up to residual hormones after the weekend.”
“I am serious,” I growled. “Fine. Call her. I have no problem telling her, man. I really am thinking about buying a ring and popping the question in Austin.”
Jack chuckled. “Mom is going to be thrilled. Seriously.”
He wasn’t wrong. As soon as her face was on the screen and the words left my mouth, she shrieked so loud that people over in the dining area jerked a little bit, looking around in an attempt to pinpoint where the commotion had come from.
“Oh, honey! I’m so happy for you. I’m over the moon. I’ve always wanted my Laurie girl to marry one of my sons.”
Mom had been calling Laurel that since we were kids and I grinned at the reminder of just how much she loved her. How embedded she’d already been in my family once upon a time.
Jack, however, ruined the moment. “I just kind of wish I was the son in question.”
I shot him a narrow-eyed glare, but he laughed, reaching out to pat me on the back. “Stop stressing. I’m happy for you, bro. We need to keep the good-looking genes going in our family, and Lulu will definitely only add to that.”