Chapter 61 Bigger Than Us #2
We pull back to catch our breath, but I hold him close, pressing our foreheads together. “How long do you get to stay?” A dumbbell drops in my gut. I’m scared to hear the answer.
“You gonna let me talk now?”
I sniff and nod my head.
“Kristen helped me plan the New Year’s Eve party tonight at the bar that shall not be named—”
“Alan is hosting the New Year’s Eve party?”
“No, I’m paying Alan to let me host a New Year’s Eve party so I can surprise you. Now will you please stop talking?”
Chest vibrating, I slide two pinched fingers from one side of my lips to the other.
“Good girl. Now, I’d planned to surprise you at midnight with some Garth Brooks on the jukebox and a kiss to ring in the new year together. But…”
“This is better,” I finish.
A soft peck. “This is better.” And another. “And it tracks.”
I snort. “My penchant for sidewalk disasters involving tattooed men and swinging doors?”
“No.” His voice softens. “This”—he gestures to the stain on his coat and mine, then my empty cup splattered on the concrete, finishing with a single finger circling the sky—“has always been bigger than us.”
Pure joy floods my chest until my insides are mush. It doesn’t matter what elaborate reunion he plans because that invisible, unexplainable, stronger-than-iron thing was going to bring us together with or without our help.
I smile against his lips. “Bigger than us.” Our bodies surrender to the embrace as we melt into one another. Two months without feeling his arms around me is too long. “I’m glad you’re here, even if it’s only for a few days.”
“I haven’t gotten to the best part yet.” My head tilts, heart racing. His grin expands. “I’m not leaving this time.”
My eyes ping between his like a mad scientist staring at an impossible equation. “You’re—but…what about your mom? She’s—”
“I told you she’s here.”
“But her recovery, I thought—”
Rowan pins me by the shoulders and spins me around. He points at a medical clinic across the street. “She’s having her first physical therapy consult as we speak.”
I turn back to face him. “I don’t understand.” My pulse beats so fast, I’m scared to take hold of the possibility—the hope—of what I think he’s saying.
He grabs both my hands, looks me dead in the eye.
His explanation pours out slowly, laced with compassion to ensure I understand every word.
It’s so kind I want to cry. “Mom got all the necessary clearance from her doctors to transfer care. The house in Charlotte is on the market and now we live here.”
Okay, I am crying. “You live here?”
“I do, baby. Sorry I had to kick you out of the cabin for the surprise, but Mom and I needed a place to stay.”
My laugh is snotty and wet. He pulls his sleeve down over his hand damp from the snow and clears the tears from my cheeks. “Are you sleeping on that tiny twin in the loft?”
He pops his shoulders. “Temporarily. Until I can build something bigger.” I’m about to ask him to explain, but he gets there first. “I’m gonna make some updates to the cabin, maybe add on a second bedroom.
Whatever Mom wants, really, because I want her to have it.
” An involuntary twinge of disappointment flashes across my face. “Don’t worry, I’m not done yet.”
“I’m sorry, that was rude, I just…I love that place.”
He kisses me once. “And I love how much you love it. Which is why I wanna build us a new house up there. Not sure exactly where yet, but the property’s big enough we’ll have options. I was thinking a little closer to the shore, walking distance to Mom’s.”
Us. We. My mad scientist face is back.
“I’d say we’ll build it together, but honestly? I want what you want, so make it into whatever you envision. As long as you call it ours when it’s done.”
“You’re crazy,” I say, head shaking wildly.
“Am I?”
I sputter out a delighted laugh. “No, you’re not, I’m just...” More bobblehead action. “I’m sorry, I’m surprised and a little overwhelmed, but I’m…”
“Happy?”
“So happy.”
I’m pulled into Rowan’s embrace, breathless and smiling like a fool. He locks his arms at my spine, cheek resting on my head. For a few minutes we just hold each other, rocking back and forth.
“How was your session?”
“It was…good.” My reply hits his chest. “I know it’s gonna be good.”
He hums but doesn’t push for more, and I squeeze him a little tighter for understanding.
I swivel my neck to look up at him, arms still linked around his waist. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You’re really here.”
“I’m really here.”
A kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Rowan leans down to kiss me again, this time going deeper. But he retreats on a groan a second later. “Dammit, I can’t right now.” I grin as he checks the time on his phone. “I gotta get Mom and then…” He pumps his brows.
I cringe. “And then what?” I think I’ve had enough surprises for one sidewalk collision.
He barks a laugh at my expression. “I have a meeting at the police station.” Panic threatens on the fringes of my mind, but the smile on his face puts me at ease. “They called and asked if I was looking for a job. I don’t know, sunshine, I might exchange one uniform for another.”
“Hmm,” I shift back, give him a studious once over. Broad shoulders, firm chest, strong legs. “I approve. But I’m still gonna call you soldier.”
“Fine by me.”
Rowan pulls me forward and I jump into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist. He catches me like it’s nothing. “Tell me something real, soldier.”
A wicked grin. “I’m gonna ask you to marry me someday.”
I smile like a fool. “My turn.”
“Tell me something real, runaway.”
Visions of wrap around porches and babies and nights spent under the stars swirl in my head as I brush my nose over his. My answer lands in a whisper against his lips. “I’m gonna say yes.”