Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
L andyn
Ford’s brothers showed up with six kinds of chips, two coolers of beer, and enough nervous energy to make me feel like I was hosting a job interview instead of a backyard barbecue.
Poppy didn’t notice. She took one look at Jesse, who greeted her with a bracelet making kit and a Hello Kitty stuffie, and immediately decided he was her favorite.
“No offense,” she whispered to me later, “but Uncle Jesse is the coolest person I’ve ever met.”
Wes was quieter. Gentle. He helped her scoop potato salad onto her plate and cut her hamburger into two equal halves without being asked. And when she accidentally knocked over her juice, he was the first to clean it up, telling her, “Don’t even worry about it, kiddo. Happens to the best of us.”
Noah taught her a secret handshake. It had six steps and ended with a fist bump and a wink. She practiced it all evening like it was the most important thing she’d ever learned .
Ford didn’t say much. He manned the grill, opened beers, kept one eye on her the whole time like he didn’t want to miss a single moment.
And me?
I just watched with my heart in my throat. Watched the way she slid into their lives like she’d always been part of them. No awkwardness. No hesitation. Just a little girl, meeting the rest of her family.
There was a moment, later on after she’d curled up between Jesse and Noah on the deck steps, licking the last of a popsicle from her fingers and giggling at something I couldn’t hear, when Ford came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“She’s going to be so loved,” he whispered into my hair and something in my chest cracked open.
It’s been a week since that night, but the feeling hasn’t left me. If anything, it’s only grown.
Ford told me to come over tonight, which has become a pretty regular occurrence. I have a key now, which still blows my mind a little.
He told me he and Poppy were going to cook dinner for me after their date day today.
These daddy-daughter dates have become the thing that Poppy most looks forward to.
Just the two of them. Ford picks her up in the morning and the two of them spend the whole day together doing something fun.
I think today was going to be mini-golf and milkshakes.
They’ve been glued together lately with bike rides, soccer in the park, and Saturday morning pancakes with chocolate chips and way too much syrup. He’s showing up for her, and she’s soaking it up like sunlight.
I pull up to his house just after five, expecting to find them in the kitchen, Poppy waiting eagerly to tell me all about who got the most holes in one.
But the second I step inside, I stop.
There are daisies everywhere.
Not a few. Not a vase or two. Hundreds of them. Everywhere.
White and yellow blossoms line the front entry table, the staircase, the kitchen island. There’s a trail of petals scattered along the hardwood floor, leading upstairs towards his bedroom.
I blink, stunned, hand still on the doorknob. Ford knows I love daisies. I’ve mentioned it more than once. But this…this is something else.
I follow the petals up the stairs and down the hall, through the warm quiet of his house until I find him sitting on his bed, leaning against the headboard.
He smiles when he sees me. Just the sight of him makes my knees wobble. He’s in jeans and a plain black T-shirt, barefoot, relaxed in a way that makes him look unfairly gorgeous.
“Where’s Poppy?” I ask, still dazed, making my way to him.
“Movie night with Jesse and Wes. She’s thrilled. I think Jesse promised her Twizzlers and popcorn for dinner.”
I laugh softly, stepping towards the bed to join him. “You tricked me.”
“I did,” he says, unapologetically. “I wanted a night with just you. We have three hours before they bring her back.”
I glance back toward the door. “Did you buy out an entire florist’s inventory to make this happen?”
He shrugs one shoulder, a little sheepish. “You said daisies made you feel like magic once. I wanted to give you some magic. ”
My heart stutters. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
He sits up, gently taking my hands in his. Nervously, I go up on my knees, kiss his mouth. His hands slide to either side of my face and stay there. He doesn’t move. He just keeps holding me, his breath slow and steady, as if he’s waiting for something. Waiting for me.
It takes a moment for the quaking inside of me to quiet, for my hands to stop clutching at the front of his shirt like I’ll fall if I let go.
When I finally go still, he tips my chin up with a single finger until I have no choice but to meet his eyes.
I don’t know what he sees in mine, but what I see in his steals the air from my lungs.
Not just the college kid who used to kiss me until my head spun.
Not just the impossible man who can rile me up with a single look across a room.
It’s something more. It’s the man I see in command at Cove.
The one who makes impossible things happen because he’s decided that they should.
It’s the same unshakable presence I’ve seen in him since the day we met, only sharper now, honed with years of life and loss.
It’s the man who used to charge through the world like a wrecking ball and somehow grew into someone who knows exactly when to hold back, exactly when to push.
And right now, he’s using every ounce of that strength to hold me up while my insides tremble and my heart pounds so hard I can hear it. There’s something in his eyes that pins me where I am, something fierce and certain.
And before he even opens his mouth, I feel it. I know.
“I’ve been waiting to say something to you,” he says. “And I didn’t want to say it in the middle of chaos. Not when we were still catching our breath.”
His eyes search mine, steady and warm.
“I love you, Landyn.” The words are quiet, but clear. Undeniable. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until he lifts one hand and brushes his thumb across my cheek.
“Want to know why I’m so sure?” he asks.
I nod once and everything about him softens. His eyes. His posture. The grip he has on me shifts—less holding me in place, more holding me steady. Even his voice changes, low and careful, like he’s handing something fragile.
“It’s because I’ve been in love before,” he says. The words land heavy in my chest, and I feel my body instinctively tense in response. He catches it but keeps going.
“Only once. And it was with you. So, I know what it feels like, Landyn. I know the way it pulls at me, the way it changes everything. I know it because I’ve been here before. And right now? I feel the same thing. Only now it’s stronger. Deeper. Like it’s carved out a home in me.”
He leans in, pressing a kiss to my mouth so soft and certain it robs me of every coherent thought.
“I know I love you,” he murmurs against my lips. “I know it, like really know it. I love you, Landyn. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
He exhales, and I feel it more than I hear it.
He’s stripped bare in front of me, heart wide open.
“And it’s the same as when I first fell in love with you, but it’s different too,” he says, kissing me again, deeper now.
“Because this time…” his mouth brushes mine once more.
“This time is the last time I will ever fall in love. It’s you and me, June.
From now until the end. Because I will never—ever—feel like this about anyone else. ”
My heart beats and aches, beats and aches, and I can’t get a single word past the knot in my throat. Instead I just launch myself at him. Arms around his neck, holding onto him like I might never let go. I’m crying, tears streaking hot down my cheeks.
“Ford,” I breathe, my voice breaking. The air in the room stops moving.
For all I know, the planets stops turning.
I slide my fingers up into his hair, messy and falling over his forehead, and push it back so I can see him.
His face. His mouth. The strong cut of his cheekbones.
And those eyes. God, those eyes. Everything good I’ve ever known is in them.
And holy hell…how did I ever think I could stay away from this man?
I must have been out of my mind. I never stood a chance. Not then. Not now. Not ever.
I look into those deep, stormy-gray eyes and watch them shift. I take a breath that feels like the first real one I’ve taken in years. And then
I dive in, no safety net, no looking back.
“I love you too, Ford,” I say, my voice steady now. “I’ve loved you all my life.”