Chapter 39 Easton
EASTON
“Keep those eyes shut or no sexting for a week.”
That’s a pretty legit threat. The blindfold around my eyes is so tight, my circulation feels threatened. “No threats when you still owe me a date for my last win, beautiful. Nice try. But I’ll behave.”
Today is technically my last day in Timber Heights before flying home tomorrow morning. Today is also the day I get to see Collie’s new fitness studio.
I’m so damn excited for her. I know she’s been anxiously waiting to show me. I can practically feel her heartbeat racing a million miles a minute from where I stand. Her keys rattle against the metal door, fiddling with the lock to open.
“Oh, you’ll get that date. Tonight, actually. And I ain’t cheap, so have your wallet ready. If I could just get this door to open,” she grunts. “Ah ha!”
I hear the door give way, and Collie guides me inside, the smell of fresh paint filling the space.
Things with us since Capri’s wedding have been everything we’ve needed.
We spent most of yesterday in bed, unable to keep our hands off each other enough to leave my hotel room.
But today, we laid low at her apartment and went to lunch with her parents, something Collie says she hasn’t done in ages.
I got to watch firsthand as Mrs. Meadows actually attempted to get to know her daughter. Looking past her expectations and selfish wants for Collie’s life, she genuinely cared to know more about the wonderful woman she is.
Sad she doesn’t know that already, but they’re headed in the right direction, and I can see the lost light dying to return in Collie’s eyes.
“Someone’s been painting,” I mumble, hoping she takes this thing off me already. “You gonna let me see now?”
“Patience is not your thing, Ranger. Hold your fucking horses, would ya?” Her footsteps dance around us, tapping against what sounds like wooden floors. The flick of switches echo and the sound of a stereo turning on fills the room with a soft melody.
I feel the moment she’s back. I always do.
Collie’s small hands find the back of my neck as she pulls me forward to untie the blindfold.
“Now, it’s nowhere near finished and I’m definitely going to need your help with the wallpaper and hanging stuff.
Especially the mirror wall, because well…
I’m not exactly tall.” I laugh as the studio comes into view, my eyes adjusting to the light.
“But it’s mine and I’m really proud of it.” I can hear the pride in her voice.
“You should be,” I whisper, taking in all her hard work these past few weeks. “Baby, it’s incredible.”
The neon sign above where the mirrors will be catches my attention first. The Beach Burn will be ready for all the future athletes in no time.
Collie runs around the studio, showing me all the different places things will go.
The mirror wall with a wall-length weight rack.
A mat corner for stretching and yoga. A section in the back where pull-up racks will be drilled into the concrete floor, along with a cold plunge area.
The main space is all her, though. All for the classes she’ll teach.
She even has a mini coffee bar, complimentary to anyone who comes in.
Not a detail will be spared.
“I still need to pick out what wallpaper I want for the wall behind the front desk, but I think the plum color gives the room the most moody aesthetic. Don’t you think?”
“I think the plum color looks great.” It really does. It’s dark without being depressing, and gives just the right amount of color without being too playful. The exact feeling I would think women and men would appreciate coming to one of her classes.
“Thanks!” Collie leads me to the front desk area, showing me all the new gadgets she got that she still needs to figure out how to operate.
“Think you’ll hire someone else to help you run things?
” I ask, taking in her wall of pictures.
There are pictures of her and Capri. Pictures of her in Italy with those two dudes I met at the wedding.
Pictures with her parents, and pictures of us in Wyoming.
I run my thumb over one of my favorites—the night we drank hot chocolate under the stars, talking until we could barely keep our eyes open.
It was also the first time I even considered the possibility of what we could be. Although everything was coming from a temporary mindset, I remember giving it legit thought.
Again, it was useless for me to fight my attraction to her.
“The goal is for the business to do well and then hire someone, hopefully in-house. I want this place to feel like a family. Open to anyone.”
I reach for her hand and pull her close. “I believe in you. You know that, right?” Just as the question leaves my mouth, my eyes catch sight of a familiar hat on the wall above us. The same hat I had designed for Collie in Wyoming.
I smile and she knows why. That entire day is inked in my memory like a tattoo.
“I do. I never told you how much I love that hat.” I inspect it, remembering how sick with pressure I felt to create for her something she’d love.
“The wave connected to the mountain in its own symbol…Easton, you didn’t even have to explain the meaning to me, and I already knew.
It’s where our lives meet. God, it meant everything to me.
Still does. Down to the orange and brown silk wrapped around the band. ”
“I wanted you to remember that the distance between us was just that…distance. Do you understand that, baby?”
“I do. More than ever now.”
“Then, can I ask you something?”
“Easton Voss, you better not be asking me to marry you.” I expected nothing less from her.
I chuckle, shake my head, and lean forward to pepper kisses along her cheek. “Not today. Would you just listen to me, woman?”
“Okay. Scared me for a second,” she rambles, seeming so young and lively at this moment. “Go ahead and ask me.”
“What I was going to ask you is…how would you feel about me moving here? To Timber Heights?”
“You want to move to Timber Heights? But what about your job and family and everything?”
I hope she can hear the sincerity in my voice. I want to do this for her. For us. “I had my general foreman make some phone calls. He can have a job lined up for me with South Carolina Power in as early as two weeks. My family wants me to be happy, and you make me happy, Collie.”
“But your life is in Alaska, Easton. I can’t ask you to leave it all behind for me. Ben…” she sighs. “Ben is in Alaska.”
I grab her hand and place it across my chest. “Ben is right here. But you are in Timber Heights, and I want to be wherever you are.”
“I…I…I don’t want this to be something that years from now you resent me for.”
I get her hesitancy, and I’m glad she’s asking the hard questions.
“Just so we’re clear—I’m making this decision because I want to. You never asked anything of me, Collie. You’re selfless like that. But hear me out. My whole adult life, I made choices for everyone around me. I need something fresh. This is for me. But also for us…if you’ll have me.”
“Are you kidding? Of course I’ll have you.” Her arms wrap around my neck as I spin her in my arms.
“This doesn’t mean we have to jump into anything, okay? I have zero expectations. We can take things slow and just date. I can rent out a place close to the yard. Really, whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Why do you always have to be such a good guy? Just tell me you want to fuck me across every square inch of our house.”
Fuck, do I ever…
“Oh, trust me. I want that very much. I’m trying to gauge where you stand here, Collie. Give me a break.”
“Then you listen to me, Mr. Voss. I want you everywhere I am. In my bed. In my home. In my kitchen drinking boring black coffee while I cook us breakfast before work. I want you in my kitchen at night making us dinner because I fucking hate it. I want you at every family function I’m forced to attend.
And I want you to be my forever adventure partner.
The guy ready to ride out when I get a wild hair up my ass and need to travel.
I want that to be you. I want all of my things to become ours. Is that clear enough for you?”
Smiling like this will be sure to break me someday. Especially if a lifetime of happiness is in my future. “Clear as day, lost girl.”
“Perfect. Now, call up that foreman guy of yours and tell him to get you that job. We’ve got some plans to make, Ranger.”
“Right now?” I question, feeling like a fucking teenager again, with so much happiness, I don’t know how to regulate it all.
“Yes, right now. I’m flying back to Salt Hollow with you tomorrow. I’d say it’s time I meet the Voss fam, don’t you?”
“Hell yeah, baby!” I shout, lifting her off her feet again and spinning us together. “I love you, Collie.”
“And I love you, Easton. Don’t you ever forget it.”
Never in a million years.
“This the kitchen counter you’re just dying to see me cook you dinner on?” My husky voice grows deep in anticipation.
“Mhm.” The tension is thick.
After leaving the studio, Collie insisted we go on the date she promised to join me on. Or should I say: she lost, and I insisted she join me on. Racking up my tab was definitely on her agenda. But I’ll spend all the money if it means I get this as my reward in the end.
The woman all but had her tits out across the booth from me at the restaurant, tempting me with her goods. I couldn’t get our tab paid fast enough, least of all finish off my fucking sushi.
The woman knows what she’s working with because, in this case, money can definitely buy happiness. A naked Collie spread wide for me on her kitchen counter is exactly what my dinner investment bought me.
No complaints here.