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When she didn’t answer, her mom leaned across the counter and took hold of both her hands. “Don’t let fear keep you from something that could be amazing. It’s time to jump, my dear. Have some faith and trust your heart. Trust his, too.”
Eyes wide, she swallowed hard. “Geez, Mom, did you talk to him?”
“No, baby, but I know you. And, I tasted your batter, and I know exactly what’s missing.”
“What?”
“Love.”
CHAPTER 32
G eared up and ready to go, Asher waited impatiently for the rest of his group to finish their pre-flight safety checks. There were two tandem jumpers, and he was one of three solo jumpers. He would be taking pictures both during free fall and once he pulled his chute, plus video via his helmet cam.
Another group was jumping before them, their plane right now taxiing down the runway. As he watched them take off and climb in altitude, the ever-present thoughts of Honor were right there clamoring for attention. This time he let them flow.
He’d been hurt when she’d walked out. Even knowing her fears, it hurt like hell that she’d tossed his love aside. Then he’d gotten pissed off that she hadn’t even been willing to try and left for Wyoming early so he didn’t have to see her across the street.
He’d spent the past week in the mountains, hiking, climbing, biking, pushing himself to the brink of his physical capabilities, exhausting himself physically and mentally so he wouldn’t lie in bed at night thinking of her. Yet, hers was the last face in his mind when he closed his eyes, and she was the first person he thought of the moment he woke up.
After the f
irst day, he’d wanted to call her and let her know he wasn’t going to give up so easy. But fear was an insidious thing, creeping in to make him hesitate each time he opened his contacts. All his life he’d seen his parents and grandparents happy. Other than small disagreements, he’d never witnessed them fight, so the idea of them ever splitting up had never even crossed his mind—until the scandal broke. Even then, he’d been adamant with Loyal that they’d be okay. They’d work it out. But the last time he’d seen his mom and dad in the same room, he’d finally had to acknowledge the more likely possibility they wouldn’t.
His fundamental beliefs were challenged once more. What if love wasn’t enough? If he was the hopeless romantic sap Roxanna had called him at the wedding almost two months ago, and he gave Honor everything and she didn’t want it—didn’t want him—she would totally wreck him for life.
High in the sky, little dots tumbled out of the plane as all the doubts and fear of the past five days coalesced into one unavoidable truth—the two of them together did not depend on anyone else in the world but them. He’d said those words to her and then forgotten them himself.
Worth the risk, remember?
Yes, she was. He had to trust his heart, the same as he’d told her to do. The night of his parents’ anniversary party, he’d felt deep down she was The One. Every day since had only reinforced that belief.
His pulse picked up speed as his thoughts gained excitement.
Now was not the time to give up. She was afraid to trust in love, afraid to want what she didn’t think was possible, so he needed to fight with everything he had to prove to her it was okay to want forever. Okay to believe in forever.
That’s what he should’ve done five days ago. That’s what he needed to do now.
“Asher.”
Honor’s voice behind him was like a miracle. He swung around fully expecting to have imagined it, but there she stood, right in front of him. With his heart pounding high up in his throat, he stared in shock.
She smiled hesitantly. “Hi.”
“Hi.” A second ago he’d been all fired-up to go get her, now all he had was Hi?
His brain absently noted the tandem harness over her sweatshirt and skinny jeans as he drank in the vision of her before him. Then the absent mental note registered, and he darted his gaze down, then back up. Now, he recognized the slight tremble in her smile, the stark contrast of the freckles splashed across her nose and unusually pale cheeks, and the trepidation in her luminous, green eyes.
“I’m going to jump,” she said. The high breathlessness of her voice conveyed her anxiety.
“Why?” he asked.
Her gaze flicked past his shoulder, and her face paled even more. He glanced over his shoulder to see the skydivers floating into view, their colorful chutes deployed above their heads as they rode the air currents down to the ground.
“Because if I can do that, I can love you.”
He nearly got whiplash when he jerked his head back around.
“I know it sounds stupid,” she admitted with another shaky smile, “but it’s what I need to do.”
