Chapter 9
Mallory
He’d eaten three enormous plates of pot roast and barely said ten words through the whole meal, and now he’d walked out of the room like I’d asked him something offensive instead of something that mattered deeply to me.
But I knew his gruffness tonight was just an outer shell. The man was terrified of telling me how he felt.
And he couldn’t chase me away that easily.
It might have worked on all the other women on Red Oak Mountain. But they didn’t have the determination I did.
I left the dishes sitting on the table and went after him.
His bedroom door was shut when I got there.
I knocked gently.
“Can I come in?”
“Yeah,” his voice was quiet and rough. Then, after a beat, he added, “I’m not in the mood to fuck, if that’s what you’re after.”
A small laugh escaped me before I could stop it, and I opened the door.
There he was. My grizzly bear of a mountain man. The only man who had ever held my heart.
“I’d love to ride your cock until sunrise,” I said, stepping inside. “But tonight I’d rather talk to you. If you’re open to that.”
He was standing with his back to me, facing the window, and the storm that had rolled in while we were eating was putting on a full show beyond the glass.
Lightning split the sky in jagged flashes, illuminating the tree line and the dark, rolling hills beyond.
The thunder that followed rumbled through my bones.
The old farmhouse creaked and settled around us like it was leaning into the weather, perfectly at home in it.
Zane stood there, still in his work clothes, his broad shoulders carrying a tension I could see from across the room.
He was hurting, and he was scared and he had absolutely no intention of letting me see either of those things if he could help it.
But I’d come too far and waited too long to let him off that easily.
I crossed the room and settled onto his bed as if I belonged there, leaning against the headboard.
“I’ve been in love with you for years, Zane.”
He spun around so fast I nearly startled.
His eyes were wild, something raw and unguarded moving through them that he hadn’t let me see before now.
“You left.” His voice came out ragged. “You left me. You left this whole damn town behind.”
“You can’t put that on me.” I held his gaze steadily, even though my heart was hammering. “You never once asked me out on a single date. Not in three years of talking to me.”
He barked out a laugh. “Because I knew you were leaving. I didn’t want to be the guy who kept you from living your dreams, Mallory.”
The words hit me somewhere soft and deep, and I felt the full weight of what he’d just admitted settle over the room.
Zane had wanted me.
He’d wanted me, and he’d stepped back on purpose.
Quietly, without a word, because he thought that was the right thing to do. Because that was exactly the kind of man Zane Thompson was, and it broke my heart a little even as it filled it up.
We’d lost so much time together. But there was still a lot of it left. Years and years were still out in front of us.
Years of children screeching as they ran across the house, floorboards thudding under bare feet.
Years of quiet days and stormy nights like this one.
Years of summers, when the air was so humid, the days were only good for cold iced tea out on that front porch of his.
Years of winters, snuggling together under the covers, whispering secrets to each other.
“What if my dreams have changed?” I asked quietly.
His brow pulled together, ripples of emotion flashing across his face, and then the fight seemed to go out of him all at once.
He came and sat on the edge of the bed beside me, his muscular back rounding as he planted his elbows on his knees and dropped his gaze to the floor.
He looked like a man who’d been carrying something heavy for a very long time and had finally run out of places to set it down.
“Don’t tease me,” he said, his voice barely above a murmur. “Don’t play with my heart, Mallory. I’m serious.”
I reached over and took his hand in both of mine. His fingers were rough, and they curled around mine like a perfect fit.
“I’m being serious too, Zane. I… I’ve never told you this, but I’ve had a crush on you since my freshman year in high school. If you’d asked me to stay, hell, if you’d taken me on a single date, I don’t think I would have ever left Red Oak Mountain.”
The pain in his eyes was real. “You must have told me a thousand times about how this little mountain couldn’t hold you back. I know your heart’s not here.”
He cleared his throat and added, “You’ll wake up in six months and hate this place. And I’ll be the reason you stayed.”
“I wish you could accept that this is the world I want. One with you in it.”
Then I added, “and my parents. And Kelly and Rose, all my friends. It’s not just for you. Red Oak Mountain feels different this time. I can see my life here, if it includes you.”
His eyes came up to mine, searching.
Lightning flashed and threw the planes of his face into sharp relief. He was so beautiful that it made my throat tight.
“What about Chicago?”
“What about it?” I shook my head. “I moved away from that place. I’m here now. There’s nothing that says I have to leave.”
“Your career.”
I thought about the Chicago offer, and what it would mean to stay here and build something new from nothing. On my own terms.
It scared me. But so did the alternative.
“I’ll figure it out. I’m good at what I do, Zane. Maybe I can work remotely. Or put up my own shingle and be a consultant.” That idea excited me. I squeezed his hand. “The only thing I can’t solve is being somewhere you’re not.”
Zane scrubbed a hand down his face and looked away toward the storm-darkened window.
“You say that now,” he rumbled quietly. “But six months from now, when this place starts to feel small again… I don’t want to be the reason you stayed.”
“You’re so certain I won’t want you,” I said softly. “That you’re chasing me away before you give us a chance.”
Zane went completely still.
Then he stared at me for a long moment, still ragged around the edges, wounded by years of quiet longing.
But something in his expression had shifted.
He believed me.
His head came to rest against my chest, his arms sliding around my waist, and I wrapped myself around him and held on.
This is who I came home for.
Then he rumbled, low and quiet against my chest, “I want you. I want this life with you.”
Zane pulled me against him, his big arms wrapping all the way around me, and I tucked my face against his neck and felt something I’d never felt before.
I was home now. Home in his arms.
Home was wherever Zane was. And he was here, in this quaint little farmhouse and a gorgeous patch of land with a perfect view of the mountains.
“You asked me a question earlier,” he growled out. “I want dozens.”
I pulled back to look at him, shocked. “Dozens of babies?”
“Yeah.”
A laugh spilled past my lips, and his mouth curved into a slow smile that I felt all the way down to my toes.
“How about three?” I offered, afraid of where our negotiations might land.
“That’ll work too.”
I was still smiling when I asked, “Should we get started tonight?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he growled, and the words were simple and certain, containing everything he felt for me.
He kissed me slowly, and I thought about the names penciled on that wall, and about the names we might add someday.
And I kissed him back, a woman who had gone a thousand miles only to find her way home again.