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He was looking at her tenderly, his blue eyes warm, his face solemn and incredibly sweet. “I love you, Chris. I’ve known for a long time. I should have told you before.”
She needed to say something. But what? How would this change anything? What if she—
Shut up, Chris.
“I love you, too, Zac.”
It was so simple.
The second the words were out of her mouth, she felt as if ten tons of misery lifted off her shoulders and shot straight up and exploded into fireworks, lighting the sky with stars of blazing color.
Yes, she was getting the hang of this romantic thing.
It took about half a second for her and Zac to cross the carpet and find each other in the middle. A fraction of that time for their arms to encircle one another, for their mouths to meet.
The fireworks were still exploding, but this time inside her head and inside her heart.
“Zac.” She couldn’t stop kissing him. The Carmia public-works department would find them still like this in the morning.
“Chris.” He apparently couldn’t stop kissing her, either. By Wednesday they’d be dead of thirst.
“You and I are going to stay together.” He wasn’t asking. He was really hers, this man who’d stop at nothing. “Whether I have to bribe my way into Columbia or get a job selling tokens in the subway, I am not letting you go.”
“Oh, Zac.” Chris gave a half laugh, half sob of happiness. “That’s fine. Really.”
“No, seriously. I am not letting you go. We will have to find ways to work and shower and eat wrapped around each other like this.”
“Okay.” The sobs gave way to pure giggles. “That is totally fine with me.”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Oh, Chris. I can’t believe how close I came to letting you go.”
“Oh, Zac.” She lifted her hand to touch his cheek. “I can’t believe how close I came to going.”
“You know what?” He lifted his head and grinned at her. “From now on I would much rather hear you say you are close to coming.”
“Mmm, that does sound better.” She moved provocatively against him. “Speaking of which...”
“My place or yours?”
“Doesn’t matter. Because wherever we go, it will be you and me.” She kissed him, her love, her future, the man who had helped her become the woman she wanted to be, by uncovering the woman she’d been all along. “And nothing in any place or in any city can change that.”
Epilogue
“I NOW PRONOUNCE you husband and wife.”
Bodie turned to Gail, who looked so hot in her black leather wedding dress that he wanted the damn ceremony over with so he could get her back into bed.
He hadn’t expected to fall in love with her. Hell, he never thought he was the love-forever type. But she kept him coming back for more and more and more, and then one day he just felt like proposing, so he did.
They bought a house on the beach in Encinitas, just north of San Diego, the quintessential surf town. Maybe he’d get Gail to pop out a few kids. That would be cool. He owed it to the world to pass along the big bad Bodie DNA to some cranking little surfer-dudes.
“You may kiss the bride.”
He kissed his wife, wincing when she bit his tongue hard. She’d pay for that. Then she’d make him pay for what he did. And on and on into their happy ever after.
Life was kicking ass.
* * *
“I NOW PRONOUNCE you husband and wife.”
Gus started crying. He couldn’t help it. Pammy was so beautiful in her white gown, with the big poufy veil. He was the luckiest guy in the world. And she didn’t do too badly, either.
He was winning tournaments now and then, instead of just placing, pretty sure he was heading for the big time, but he worried that with a wife now and kids someday, maybe he better get serious about a career. He could always...
Or maybe he’d be good at...
Uh.
He was a surfer. What could he say?
Pammy was studying to be an X-ray technician. Practically a doctor. She was so smart. He was away from home more than he wanted, but it was so much more special now coming back to Carmia than it had ever been, with this perfect woman waiting for him.
“You may kiss the bride.”
