Chapter 44
Juliet
This is what I want for the rest of my life—Archer looking at me the way he is now. Dad has no idea who Archer is, but I do. And he’s the best man for me.
The only man for me.
Dad hoped a week without Archer would extinguish my crush, but it did the opposite. Being away from him settled my love in granite—etched to last through the eternities.
And I’ve kept away from him for long enough.
My eyes drop to his lips, and his arm presses against mine.
He’s wearing his tan cowboy hat again. The one that drives me wild inside. But I focus instead on the curve of his lips.
“Why are you smiling?” I ask.
“I’ve just missed you.” He lets out a deep sigh and a slow shake of his head. “That was one heck of a week.”
I shrug. “It wasn’t that long.”
His grin grows. “You know what I love about you, Juliet?”
Love? Did he just say love? “What’s that?”
“You can’t tell a lie without giving yourself away.”
I turn to face him, leaning my left elbow on the fence. “What do you mean?”
“Your voice goes higher whenever you stretch the truth.”
“What? It does not.”
“Let’s test it, shall we?” He leans toward me with a smirk. “Did you miss me this week?”
“No.”
I freeze. My voice did get higher. How have I never noticed this before?
Archer grins. “Do you still have a crush on me?”
I clear my throat and answer in a deep voice. “No.”
He laughs. “Cheat.”
But I didn’t cheat. Because I wasn’t lying. I don’t have a crush on Archer anymore.
I’m in love with Archer.
“That’s all right,” he says. “I can already see the truth in your eyes.”
“Oh, can you?” I ask with a challenge.
“Yup. It’s as obvious as when I first picked you up in my truck on the side of the road.”
“You’re seeing things.”
“If by things, you mean you, falling for me, then yes, I am.”
I laugh.
“I’m falling for you, too, though, so no need to be embarrassed,” he says. “In fact. I’m confident enough to say I might be falling for you even harder.”
We fall silent, but a different world is just beginning to wake up.
One of the horses nickers to the side of us.
Crickets chirp loudly across the fields, welcoming the approaching darkness with their rhythmic humming.
The first star appears in the sky, despite the light still glowing above the mountains, and the trees rustle in the wind, giving off their final colors of red, yellow, and orange before the night takes them.
I let out a deep sigh, the wind brushing past me. “I love this time of year. Summer’s great with all the barbecues and swimming and camping. It’s just...intense. In the fall, things slow down. Instead of everything being bright and stimulating and sun kissed, in October, it’s...autumn kissed.
“Autumn kissed. I like the sound of that.”
His eyes catch mine, an impish look within them.
I shake my head with a half-hearted warning. “Don’t look at me like that, Archer Kade.”
“Like what?”
“Like you want to make me as autumn kissed as the land.”
He grins. “Am I that transparent?”
“Yes, cowboy. You are.”
He tips his hat up. “If you don’t want me to kiss you, sunshine, you gotta stop calling me that.”
My heart skips a beat. “What? Cowboy?”
“It gets me all sorts of riled up.”
My heart slams against my chest at the heat in his eyes.
“You know what I wish sometimes?” he asks.
“What?”
“I wish I could redo when I picked you up on the side of the road. I would’ve dropped a line to ask you out before you’d even gotten into my truck.”
“What line would you have used?” I ask, relishing the way his attention makes my chest burn.
“Maybe...You look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before? You know, other than my dreams?”
I drop my chin with an unimpressed look.
“Okay, not that one,” he says. “How about, your hand looks a little empty. Can I fill it with mine?”
I make a gagging noise. “Next.”
His eyes flash toward mine, and before I can register his movements, he has me around the waist, and I yelp as he lifts me up to sit at the top of the fence. I cling to the post, but he steadies me, one arm around my back, the other resting on my thigh.
“How about this one, then,” he begins, his features softening.
“I’ve spent my entire life trying to find someone I could fall head over heels in love with.
The minute you walked into my life again, I knew that was you.
You are the woman I’ve been waiting for, Juliet, and now that I’ve found you, I ain’t letting go. ”
My head is spinning. The only thing I can focus on are his lips.
“Would that line have worked better?” he asks.
“Oh, yeah.”
He leans forward, brushing his nose against mine, intentionally keeping our lips apart. “Now you’ve got to try a line on me.”
I don’t know if I can even talk, let alone come up with a clever quip. Instead, I lean slightly back so our eyes meet, then I remove his hat and place it on me. It teeters back on my head because it’s too large, but it’s warm against my cold head.
I keep one hand on the fence but allow the other to reach into his hair, and I run my fingers through his locks. His eyes close, and he draws steadying breaths.
“How about,” I begin, repeating his words from before, “kiss me, cowboy.”
His lips curve, and he nods. “You got it.”
Finally, he takes my lips with his.
I’ve waited too long for this, so I drink him in.
We move as one, lips, breaths, heartbeats, as heat explodes between us, our mouths moving more swiftly as restrained passion pours forth from Archer.
His hands slide up and down my back and sides, though never past propriety—something I’ve come to expect from him.
It’s different, kissing him at eye-level. Before, I had to stand on the tips of my toes. Now, I wrap my arms around his shoulders with ease and lean into him.
I’ve never felt emotional when kissing someone, but the overwhelming love I have for him and receive from him is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I want to feel it forever. I want to live in this moment forever.
Because now, more than ever, there’s no going back to the life I had before Archer Kade became my everything.
Archer
Juliet kissing me, wearing my hat, calling me cowboy...It has me all sorts of riled up, but I maintain control, even though I want to lose it all with her.
This kiss is different from the first. Still just as passionate, but without the uncertainty we began with—not knowing where the other was in our relationship. Now I know Juliet is as invested as I am.
I hold her steady on the fence post, using my body anchored against the fence to balance her.
For a moment, I hold back, anxious to see what she’ll do.
I don’t have to wait for long before she takes the reins, directing the kiss in her own feminine way.
Her fingers are in my hair again, and the smell of her fruity scent swirls around my senses and muddles my thoughts, leaving only two—how did I ever exist without this woman, and how can I ever be without her again?
The thought of being away from her is enough to send me into a near panic, so much so that I need to be closer to her to settle my heart.
I wrap my arms around her, holding her against me as I pull her down from the fence mid-kiss. My hat gets knocked to the ground, but it only allows me to lean in deeper.
She gives in at once, and our mouths move in sync, our bodies together as if both of us are desperate to never part again.
By the time we break for air, we’re both breathless, so I take a minute to kiss the smooth side of her lips, her temple, her jawline, before taking her mouth again.
Her soft breaths brush against my cheek, and the feel of her figure in my arms is enough to undue me.
I don’t know how much time has passed before we finally break.
Juliet pulls back first, her eyes partially closed, her words airy. “We need to check the time.”
“Nah,” I say, kissing her again. “It doesn’t matter.”
She smiles through our kiss. “You’ve got to become the Headless Horseman, cowboy.”
I kiss her again, and she returns it to the point where I’m on the verge of losing control. She knows how to use that name to her advantage, which only makes me love it—and her—all the more.
She breaks away again with another grin. “You can’t be late to an event you’re hosting.”
I pull back, breathing heavily and resting my brow against hers to settle my racing pulse. “You’re right. I guess.”
She pulls up her smart watch and looks at the time. “Archer! You’ve got thirty minutes before people start arriving.”
“Thirty whole minutes? Perfect.”
I go in for another kiss, but she giggles and backs away, picking up my hat in the process and placing it atop my head. The sun is nearly gone, and so is my self-control.
Which means it probably is a good time to go.
“Come on, you,” she says, “get me back up on my horse.”
Anything to see those pockets again.
I take her hand and lead her toward the horses who’d wandered a few feet away. “I’ll help you if you agree to kiss me like that again once everyone’s gone.”
“I can manage that,” she replies with a wink, and I do what I can to calm down.
Together, we ride back to Horseshoe Holler, using the light from the stables to lead the way back. As my eyes constantly stray to Juliet’s, I find her watching me by the light of the moon, and my heart thumps against my chest.
This is a moment of perfection I want to remember for the rest of my life, and I’m willing to do anything to keep it—even pandering to Mr. Monroe.
Time to put on the show of a lifetime.