Lana goes still. “That’s awful.” There’s a kindness in her tone. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
"It gutted me at the time. But I’ve had years to move beyond it. Now I can see it’s better that she told me then before I spent any more time." I keep my eyes on the valley. "I’m not built for casual, never have been.”
“What did you do?”
“I let her go in an instant. I didn't fight. Because I knew even then she wasn't wrong about what she wanted. I also knew I was never going to give her any of that. All I wanted was exactly this." I gesture at the valley. "Whispering Pines. A small house I'll make a whole big life in. A wife who wants a big life in a small town."
It’s crazy but somehow for the first time in a long time that wife in my mind has a face. But I don’t say the words, not after all she’s been through. Instead I take a breath and let the unspoken words between us settle.
She bites her bottom lip. “It’s hard to believe that anyone would say no to that offer.”
She says it lightly, like a joke. But she's not laughing. And she's looking at me in a way that makes the whole valley go quiet.
"Careful, a man could read into a thing like that."
"Maybe a man should." Her glasses slide down her nose, but she doesn't fix them. Her half smile does something reckless to my pulse.
The wool blanket bunches under my hand as I turn to face her, and the cooler creaks. Somewhere below us a hawk rides the air over the town like it's got all the time in the world.
I don't. I've got right now and I’m not going to let the moment pass.
I reach up and slide her glasses off. My movements are careful and slow. I fold them and set them on the blanket beside us and her eyes go wide. Up close I catch the flecks of gold that sparkle in them.
I catch her chin and tilt her mouth up to mine. Then I plant my lips on hers. Her breath catches. My heart rate ticks up. Lana leans into me and our kiss deepens. Her hand fists in my shirt and pulls me closer like she's been deciding this since the fire. She tastes like the lemonade from the cooler and something sweeter. Lana makes a small sound against my mouth and I feel it everywhere.
I forget the valley. I forget the four hundred people I know by name. I forget my whole damn life laid out below us, because the only part of it that matters is six inches in front of me with her fingers in my collar.
She makes that sound again, soft and breaking apart against my lips, and it lights me up everywhere. My hand slides into her hair and I tilt her head to take the kiss deeper. She gives it to me. God, she justgivesit to me, like she's been holding her breath for two years and finally remembered how to let it out. I could stay up here and kiss this woman until the season closes the pass back down around us.
CHAPTER 7
LANA
We've spentthe whole day lost in Whispering Pines. Every mile between my house and this place came with a revelation like he was handing me a piece of himself… And now I'm lost in him.
Somehow this sexy firefighter who literally saved my life yesterday is saving me all over again. Jordan’s kiss melts every part of me. The sizzle starts slow and goes molten.
I forget that we are in a public place. I stop keeping track of where I end and he begins. His hand finds the curve of my waist and slides up my side. I arch into it before I can think better of it.
I don't want him to stop.
I don't want any of it to stop.
This is the part where I'm supposed to hear the warning bells. The part where some old, careful voice in the back of my head reminds me what men cost. But the voice isn't there. It's just gone, like he drove it off the mountain on the way up.
Jordan is so different from anyone I've ever known. I trust him implicitly. I don't decide to… it's just already true. It settles somewhere under my ribs before I notice it happening.
My whole nervous system goes quiet when I’m close to him. It’s like a hand pressed flat on a humming wire. With him, I'mnot bracing. I'm not looking over my shoulder. For the first time in longer than I can stand to count, I'm justhere.
His mouth lands on my neck and I bury my fingers in his hair. Jordan’s hand slips under the hem of my shirt and his palm is warm against my bare skin. Everywhere he touches lights up like he's striking matches against my skin. His mouth drags to the spot where my neck meets my shoulder and he sucks, just hard enough to make me gasp, and I feel the answering pull low in my belly. Two years of holding myself together in tight, careful pieces—and this man is taking me apart with his lips and one warm hand. A sound I don't recognize comes out of me and he responds with a growl. My fingers find his belt. I tug, desperate for more of him and aching to be filled.
Jordan pulls back. It’s just an inch, but it stops me in my tracks.
“What’s wrong?” My breath comes in short, hot gasps.
His forehead drops to mine and he's breathing like he ran up the mountain instead of driving it. "Sweetheart." His voice is low and wrecked. "We don't have to do this. We don’t have to do anything you aren’t comfortable with. I’m not going anywhere either way.”
I can feel how much he means it. He'd stop right now if I told him to. He'd fold this whole date up like he folded my glasses, careful and slow. This man isn’t asking me for a single thing. That's the part that undoes me.
