Page 126 of Hometown Hottie

The bakery wouldn’t be opening for months. The venues were on about the same timeline. In the meantime, the only thing I would be doing was overseeing work and helping out with the chores, but with Carson’s investment in the property, Dad was going to be hiring a couple ranch hands anyway.

We’d finally gotten through to him that he couldn’t keep the same pace as ten, twenty, and thirty years ago. He needed help, and so did we.

All of which meant that right at this very moment, there was absolutely nothing holding me back. Bringing my gaze back to Carson’s, I wound my arms around his neck and smiled. “Thanks to you, I’ve actually got the time to follow my dreams right now and the only dream I want to follow is being with you.”

A dazzling light came on in his eyes and his eyebrows lifted. “Is that a yes? You’ll come with me?”

“It’s a yes,” I all but squealed, pushing up on my toes to meet his lips. “It’s a hell yes.”

He swept me clean off my feet, his tongue diving between my lips and scattering my thoughts. He kissed me like his very existence depended on it. Wrapping my legs around him and tightening the grip of my arms, I laughed when he started carrying me out of the kitchen.

When I broke the kiss to ask him where we were going though, he surprised me with the intensity of the look in his eyes. “I love you, Nova.”

My heart skipped, then started beating so fast at the sound of those words. Happy tears suddenly filled my eyes and the widest smile I remembered ever smiling broke out across my lips. “I love you, too, Carson. God, I can’t believe I finally got to say it.”

He let his forehead rest against mine, breathing me in. He let out a deep noise from the back of his throat. “Tell me about it, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to say it enough. Or to hear it enough. Say it again.”

“I love you, Carson Drake.”

He let out another noise, then started moving again, faster and more urgently than ever before. With the tears still in my eyes and my heart still racing, I clung to him and laughed. “Where are we going? What’s our first stop?”

“Our bedroom, then LA”

My heart skipped about ten more beats. “Our bedroom?”

“Yep. I’m all in, Nova. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to rent separate places once we get there, so we might as well make it official.”

As sudden as it was, there was logic to his madness. Besides, I didn’t want it any other way. “Our bedroom, it is. Whatever will we tell our parents?”

He chuckled against my hair and started up the stairs, one hand on the barrier and other holding me firmly to him. “We’ll tell them whatever you want, my dear. I know what I’d like to tell them, but it might be a bit soon to start talking about that.”

My heart soared and I shut my eyes briefly. I wasn’t quite sure when or how it had happened, but my life right now was everything I’d ever wanted it to be and more. I never would’ve imagined it was possible to be this fulfilled, this happy, and this safe in the knowledge that this man, the only one I’d ever truly loved, was really going to be my happily ever after.