Page 116 of Have To Be Mine

I froze. “Our new place?”

He lowered the phone, his expression suddenly serious. “You said your apartment is hollow. Mine is too. So let’s build something new. Together. A place that’s ours.”

My heart started pounding. “You want us to live together?”

“I want us to build a life together. In New York, or wherever you want. I just know I don’t want to wake up in a place that doesn’t have you in it.”

I felt tears pricking at my eyes. “That’s really romantic. And fast.”

“Fast can be good.”

“It can be.”

“I have one rule though.” His grin returned. “I get to hang pictures of my girl in her bikini on the walls. Everywhere. The living room, the bedroom, the kitchen. In the bathroom.”

“Absolutely not!” I lunged for his phone, but he danced away, laughing.

“Too late! They’re already backed up to the cloud!”

“Dash Blackwell, you give me that phone right now!”

“Come and get it!”

He took off running down the beach. I chased after him, laughing so hard I could barely breathe. He let me get close, then veered toward the water. I followed, forgetting about the phone, caught up in the joy of the moment.

When I finally caught him, he tossed his phone onto the dry sand and scooped me up in his arms.

“What are you doing?”

“Making memories,” he said, and ran straight into the ocean with me.

I shrieked as the cool water hit my skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck. He kept going until we were waist deep. Then he kissed me. The taste of salt water mixed with the taste of him, and I forgot about everything except this moment. I could do this. I wasn’t afraid. Dash wasn’t going to hurt me.

We stayed in the water for an hour, playing like kids and pretending like there was nothing beyond our happy little bubble. We kissed and laughed and talked about nothing important.

Eventually, we made our way back to shore and collapsed on the sand, letting the sun dry us off.

“Tell me about this new place we’re going to build,” I said, turning on my side to look at him.

He mirrored my position, his hand finding mine in the sand. “I want something with lots of light. Big windows. Maybe a terrace like this one, where we can have morning coffee.”

“That sounds nice.”

“I want a home office for you. Somewhere you can work when you’re between contracts. With a big desk and filing cabinets and all that organized shit you love.”

I smiled. “What about you?”

“I need a creative space. Somewhere I can spread out mood boards and fabric samples and make a mess without you yelling at me.”

“I don’t yell.”

“Maybe it’s more directing,” he said. “You have a very commanding voice when you want something done your way.”

“That’s called being efficient.”

“That’s called being bossy.” He kissed my nose. “But I love it. I love that you push me to be better.”

I traced patterns in the sand between us. “What else do you want in this place?”