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It reminded me of every time we had escaped from the group home.
I didn’t give her time to worry, pulling her along the path that snaked around the main cabin and out to cabin row. Penny dragged her feet behind me until I slowed, letting her catch up, and wrapped my arm around her waist, hugging her to me. “I miss you.”
“Blake, it’s only been twenty-four hours.” She rolled her eyes at me, but I saw the heat there.
She knew exactly what I was referring to.
“I don’t care. It’s too long. I need you. Always.”
Our eyes locked, and my love for Penny reflected back at me.
Was it still supposed to be this intense between us?
After all of this time?
Snapping myself out of it, I walked us to the spot—the one I’d brought Penny to last summer.
Earlier, when she’d been catching up with Marissa and unpacking in their cabin, I’d come out to prepare things. I released my hold on Penny and took her hand so I could go in ahead of her, just to see the look in her eyes when she realized what was happening.
We broke through the small clearing, and I turned around, not wanting to miss it. Penny’s eyes widened and then filled with tears. “I… Blake, this is, this is everything.”
Mission accomplished.
I’d laid the picnic blanket in the middle of the tree circle. Cartons of juice and cookies were scattered in one corner, and a bunch of hand-tied flowers lay in the middle. Those were new, and with her hand in mine, I tugged a speechless Penny over to the blanket and pulled her down with me.
“Twelve years ago, a lost, sad, and afraid girl showed up at the group home where I was staying,” I said. “I was pissed because it was another girl until I saw her. Saw the pain in her eyes and the way she held herself together with just her arms. I wanted to make her smile. I was only twelve, and I didn’t know why I felt that way, but I did.
“Over the years, I watched this girl grow into someone special. My friend. My partner in crime. My heart. She became everything. The light in my dark. The seed of hope in bleak despair. I lay out in No Man’s Land with her looking up at the stars planning our future. One where we were free. Where we could make our own rules, and then, one day, I was ripped away from her.”
A lump stuck in my throat, and I gulped back the rush of tears behind my eyes. Penny’s eyes were already glazed over, and I saw her suck in a shaky breath.
“Not a day went by when I didn’t think about her. Even when I thought she’d moved on, I still dreamed of her. Of where she was and what she was doing…” The lump grew, and I swallowed hard, trying to choke down the emotion running through me.
“Blake…” My name on her lips almost broke me, but I reached my hand for her and pressed a finger to her lips. “No, I need to say this. If I could go back and do everything differently, I would. I would choose you every time, Penny. I would be brave and strong and fight for you. But I can’t turn back the clock, so all I ask is for you to let me be that person now. Let me hold you when you’re sad and cry with you when you’re hurt. If you let me, I promise I’ll spend my life loving you.”
I exhaled.
Really, inhaling would have been better to let me catch my breath, but I felt like a huge weight had been lifted. After everything with my uncle, Brittany being a total bitch in the aftermath of finding out about Penny and me, and then the charges against Derek and Marie, the last seven months had been a whirlwind.
I told Penny I loved her all the time, but I needed her to know that I never stopped loving her.
My hands buried themselves deep into her hair, and I drew her to me, pressing my lips to hers.
I needed her to know I hadn’t just saved her, but she had also saved me.
My tongue traced the outline of her mouth, and she parted her lips. The kiss was hungry, needy… desperate.
But I needed her to know she was mine,
My lucky Penny.
She always would be.
BONUS EPILOGUE
Penny
“So, did he ask you yet?”
