I can’t speak. I just stand there, heart pounding, trying to catch up to what he’s saying.
He strokes my cheek. “I’m not whole yet,” he says quietly. “But the one thing I’m certain of is that I want you at my side while I’m healing. I don’t want to go through it alone. And I don’t want you to go through your own hell alone.”
“Are you serious?” I whisper.
“As a gunshot.”
I laugh, even though my eyes are stinging. “That’s dark.”
“That’s us.”
Is this truly happening? Henry is here? For good? For me?
“Say something,” he murmurs.
I do the only thing that makes sense. I grab his collar and pull him down to me.
This time the kiss is familiar. Like home.
Around us, people come and go, another car door slams, someone laughs.
But all that matters is Henry. And me.
Us.
When I finally pull back, he’s smiling.
“Move in with me,” he says.
“What?”
He brushes a strand of hair from my face. “No speeches. No ‘let’s wait and see.’ Just move in. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“Henry—”
“Look,” he says softly, “I know it’s fast, but it doesn’t feel fast to me. It feels like we’ve been circling this for years.”
I look up at him, at the man who’s still rebuilding his life and choosing to walk back into mine. “You really opened an office here?”
“Signed the lease yesterday.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” His blue eyes sparkle. “You’re not the only one who can make impossible things happen, Miss Surgical Seminar.”
I shake my head, laughing through tears. “You’re insane.”
“Comes with the territory,” he says. “But it’s manageable with the right medication.”
I snort. “You’re also impossible.”
He wraps his arms around my waist. “And I’m all yours.”
God help me, that’s all it takes.
He kisses me again, slower this time, deeper. When he pulls back, he traces my jaw with his thumb. “So what do you say, Doctor-to-be? Want to give the big bad rancher a chance at city life?”
I glance past him at the truck and then at Zach sitting on the sidewalk. A wave of emotion rises so strong I can barely breathe. “Yeah,” I whisper. “Yeah, I do.”
