“You think you were the only one who realized you and I are meant to be? Nah, I knew it. Ifeltit.”
He looks confused or torn. Maybe both.
“I’ve loved you for as long as you’ve loved me, maybe a little bit more. Sorry I didn’t tell you before. I didn’t want you to run for the hills and all.”
He takes a step forward. “Don’t play with my feelings, Firefly.”
I shrug. “Does this sound like I’m playing?” I open my arms by my sides, palm facing up. “Sounds honest to me.”
He takes another step, standing oh so close to me this time. “Say it again,” he whispers, his minty breath teasing my lips.
“I love you, Dominic love of my life Diaz.”
Woop—I’m up in the air as he spins me and slams me against the stall wall. “You need to stop doing that, or you’re gonna bruise my back.”
I bite my lower lip, knowing damn well he knows how much I love beingmanhandledby him, especially since I know that he would never do anything I’m not okay with.
“Was thatyourway of asking me to keep you?” he asks.
I take his face in my hands, fingers digging into his neck as my thumbs caress his perfect beard. “You already have me. Just don’t let me go again.”
He drops a kiss to my lips, fast and ravenous, deep and needy. He kisses me like he has been underwater, and I’m all the oxygen he needs to breathe.
“I’ll never let you go,” he whispers against my lips, touching our foreheads together and opening his eyes. “I love you. So damn much.”
“Me too, cowboy. Now, let’s go for a ride. We can figure out all the other stuff later.”
I drop a peck to his lips before he spins me around again and places me on top of Juniper, guiding us both out.
“Give me a minute. Let me get ready.”
I nod at the tip of his hat, but before he disappears behind me, he says, “Hey Firefly?”
“Yeah?” I turn to face him.
“I’m not a cowboy, darlin’.” He winks.
Not a cowboy, my ass.
41TWO MONTHS LATER
Riley
“Wait for me!”I shout, following Willa, who’s walking up to the end of summer campfire. Summer has come and gone like a thunderstorm, and the only thing left behind, unlike the usual wreckage, is the hope this place will be alright.
Thatwewill be alright.
She’s working somewhere close by, so it won’t be years before we see her again, and that works, considering she’s all smoochy smoochy with her bestie. I saw that coming years ago. I should’ve placed a bet on it or something.
“I told you I was coming,” I say, out of breath.
“For someone who’s always running around, you sure are slow.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I link my arm with my peacekeeper sister, and we finish the trek to the bonfire. The counselors are sitting around it, laughing, talking, Lilly tucked in the arms of her love.
That, I also saw coming. I would have earned good money if I’d listened to my gut and started placing bets on my sister’s love life.
And I might have won this one, but I definitely lost the one where I believed finding myself again was something that could happen in the place I call home. Or finding much more.
