“We’re going for a run. I’m in training.”
I give him my most sinister scowl, but it bounces off of him like a ping pong ball. He pulls me to my feet and gives me a long, deep kiss that makes my toes curl and my fingers tug on his beard.
“You woke a sleeping bear. You knew what would happen.”
“Believe me,” I grumble, “I really didn’t.”
But I get changed and slap his butt as we leave the house.
We normally run through neighborhood streets, but today, Sean takes a different route out of town, toward the ridge. It’s a smooth enough path, but the hills make the run tougher.
It takes me longer than normal to hit a good stride, but I blame Sean, and I tell him that.
“Come on. Where’s my girl?”
“Back in bed waiting for her husband,” I say, and he laughs. Then he turns abruptly, picks me up, and throws me over his shoulder, hauling me up the steep incline that leads up to the ridge.
“Put me down,” I say. “I’m not letting you injure yourself just to prove how tough you are, you sexy caveman.”
I feel his chuckle in my gut. He sets me down, plants a warm kiss on my lips, and then we take the rest of the run up the ridge slowly and carefully.
When we reach the top of the ridge, we’re both panting. Sean tucks me under one sweaty arm, and I wrap my arms around his barrel chest. His heart beats hard and fast against my cheek, but steady, too. You could set your watch to Sean’s pulse, it’s so consistent.
You could build your life around him, he’s so constant.
“I can’t believe you’re mine.”
Did he say that out loud or did I think that?
But before I can ask, he’s pulling away, grabbing my hands, and dropping to one knee. I give him a confused laugh.
“I think we already did this part.”
“I know,” he says, his eyes fixed on mine. “But I need to tell you something so you don’t think this was backwards the whole time.” He takes a deep breath. “I didn’t want to marry you to help you out. I feel selfish admitting this, but I wanted to marry you so I could have a chance at something real with you. I was already halfway in love with you, and I wanted time to fall therest of the way. If you left town, I was afraid I’d never get the chance.”
This man!
“Sean, I didn’t say yes because I cared about the team. Not really.” He gives me a look of such skepticism, I have to laugh. “I’m serious! I told you before—I could have fought the residency issue in court and won. We both know it.”
“So why did you say yes?”
“Because I loved the way I felt around you. I loved myself around you. No one outside of my family had ever made me feel so confident before. And no one in the world ever made me feel so … delightful. Does that make sense? I started craving the sound of your laugh after the first time I heard it. And once I heard it again, I was hooked. So you see, we’re both selfish. And I think that’s a good thing.”
I tug him to his feet, and he tucks an errant curl behind my ear before wrapping his arms around me. “How do you figure?”
“We never felt safe to think about what we wanted until we met each other.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” he says. The light morning breeze stirs his hair. I wonder if him being on a non-Mullet Ridge team will mean he stops growing a mullet during hockey season.
He’s hot with or without it.
“What’s the other way?” I ask. And because I can’t handle it anymore, I press my lips against his neck, letting his soft beard tickle my nose and cheeks as I breathe him in.
He spreads his hands across my back and presses me closer. “The other way is that I never knew what it was to want someone until I met you.”
I smile against his jaw. “I like that.”
“I like you.”
