Her hands go flying to her face.
“I have something for you,” I say, lowering myself to the backpack. “This is another reason why I wanted us to spend the day together.” I rummage through the bag until I find a small navy-blue box. I stand back up and hand it to her.
Her teary eyes bounce from the box to mine. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
She does.
She’s speechless for a few beats.
She meets my gaze.
We lock eyes for a long beat.
She blinks. “A key?”
“Your house is great, but at the end of the day, it belongs to Jake and Hunter, and I’m on their property when I come toyour place. So, this is more than a key. It’s an extra key to the farmhouse…ourfarmhouse. Move in with me, Carina.”
Her eyelashes are fluttering at a mile a minute.
“You’re already mine, but I want to wake up next to you… every single day. I need you all the time.”
“My God, Rhett. Your words are making me dizzy,” she says, taking a small step forward, gripping my forearms. It’s like she fell into my arms… where she belongs.
“Is that a yes?”
“I’d love nothing more than to wake up nestled next to your warm body.”
“You’re it for me, Carina.”
Her arms tighten around me and she melts into my embrace. “You’re it for me too, Rhett.”
It doesn’t get better than this for a guy like me.
Here I am at one of my favorite spots in town, on a perfect sunny day, with the girl of my dreams. There’s no better place for me to tell her how much I love her. How much she means to me. As far as the eye can see, it’s beautiful, gorgeous, and stunning… just like Carina. My little darling.
Chapter 31
Carina
Two months later
When I moved to Summerville, it was to perfect my skills as a chef and ride the express train from winning Food Network’sBest Sandwich Evercompetition. Finding love and wrangling ‘THE SEXIEST COWBOY ALIVE’ wasn’t on the list, but I sure as hell love how this story ends. I guess I should say ‘begin’ because Rhett and I have only been dating for about six months.
My birthday is Sunday. I’ll be twenty-five. Rhett has big plans for the joyous day, but he feels strongly about starting the celebrations today. Since it’s Friday, he declared it’s a weekend birthday celebration, not just one day. I’m not going to argue with that kind of sound logic.
My parents and brothers are flying in tomorrow with the grandparents. They’re all staying at a nearby hotel, but they’ll congregate at the house tomorrow night.
So many blessings.
It took a lot of time for my brothers to come around. According to them, they had little in common with a small-townranch hand, so why make the effort? They were polite enough around my boyfriend, but always distant.
Christian was the worst. At times, his attitude was so abhorrent, I wanted to bitch slap him.
Even after Rhett reached near-celebrity status, my brothers were reticent. True, celebrities in New York are a dime a dozen, so I understand how seeing Rhett’s face plastered on billboards across the city, selling the latest cologne for men, didn’t faze them much. They were being pigheaded, and I pointed it out to them without mincing my words.
Thank God, Mom and Daddy embraced Rhett when they met him.
