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She turned at the midpoint on the balcony, facing him with the canopy of sky as a breathtaking backdrop. The expanse couldn’t compete with the bright cobalt gaze of the woman though.
“I wanted to talk to you,” she told him unnecessarily, which made him smile for some reason.
“I’m listening.” He was always ready to hear whatever she had to say.
“I’m in love with you.”
Except when she said that. His lungs seized, and he choked on a breath, wheezing until his eyes watered. Her concerned face floated through his murky vision until he blinked back the worst of his shock.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her brows drawing together as she rubbed his back in soothing circles. “That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
“That makes two of us,” he croaked and finally got his lungs clear enough to drag in a cleansing lungful of air. “Sorry. I can do better. Say that again.”
The concern on her face turned to skepticism. “I don’t know. I’m a little concerned this conversation is too much for your delicate constitution—”
His mouth crashed down on hers before she could finish the rest of the smart-aleck comment she’d been about to voice. Havana was the cure to everything that ailed him anyway. As her sweet lips conformed to his, his heart unfurled like a motionless flag caught by a breeze, wrapping around her until she was a part of him.
Softening the assault, he kissed her until they were both senseless and she was clinging to his waist with both hands. Good. That was how it should be. All fire and honey and no room for nonsense.
The balcony’s railing bit into his back as she kissed him in kind, and he had half a mind to move the party indoors, but first they had to get a few things straight. Like whether or not this was his cue to repeat her sentiment or if she’d confessed that she was in love with him right before telling him she was leaving.
In case it was the latter, he prolonged the kiss for another three or four minutes because he was not an idiot.
When he pulled back, Havana’s hair had a slightly rumpled look from his fingers, and her lips begged to be sampled again. All he wanted to do was dive back in. But he didn’t.
“Now it’s time to talk,” he said. Okay, he was an idiot, obviously, if this was what he’d rather be doing than trying a few more ways to kiss her. But they’d done a lot of that and not enough settling things once and for all. “Give me some clue where this conversation is headed. Because I know where I intend for it to go. If it’s not going to include words like ‘I want to be with you, Caleb,’ then say so now.”
“It’s going to include words like ‘it’s enough,’” she said, her eyes wide and huge and misty as she gazed up at him. “You’re enough. I’m through being scared of what’s happening between us. I want it all even if it means one day you figure out I’m bossy and controlling and that you can do better.”
He snorted. “I already knew you were bossy. Somehow that’s never decreased your attractiveness. And for your information, the only way I could do better is if you married me.”
Havana froze in his arms, her whole body going still as if she’d turned into an ice sculpture, and he cursed his stupid mouth for getting ahead of the game. Where had that even come from? He’d never had one thought about marrying anyone until now, but he wasn’t hesitating anymore, and then it had sort of popped out… Clearly he needed to work on the delivery. Or move to Timbuktu be
fore he screwed everything up again.
But then he watched as she forcibly relaxed, almost as if she’d pushed a button.
“If you’re trying to scare me off, it’s not going to work,” she announced decisively. “I’m not going anywhere, so do your worst.”
“Fine. Then I love you too.”
It seemed like saying something so momentous out loud should at least result in the earth shaking or a comet streaking across the sky to mark the occasion. But nothing like that happened. Instead, something so much better did. Havana smiled and framed his jaw with her hands, placing a sweet kiss on his lips.
“Good,” she murmured against his mouth. “I was worried I was the only one who’d been walloped by this craziness. Now that we’re both on board, I have a confession to make.”
Caleb did his own impersonation of an ice sculpture. “There better not be any more fiancés in the wings.”
“One is enough,” she said with an arched brow that shouldn’t have made him smile as broadly as it did. “No, this is much worse, and I can fully understand if you want to retract your proposal as a result of learning this heinous secret. The truth is… I hate Doritos.”
“Jeez, Havana. You can’t drop something like that on a guy.” He clutched his chest, faking a heart attack. “How will we raise the children? Because Fritos are never gracing a cupboard in my house—”
“Children?” Her gaze went limpid and watery and serious, and he nearly claimed a real heart attack to explain the sudden prick behind his own eyelids. But they were getting real, so he nodded.
“Maybe. One day.” He shrugged. “If that’s what we both want. Let’s build a town first though, okay? I’ve been the mayor for like five minutes, and Serenity’s prediction didn’t say anything about all this.”
“She gave you a prediction too?” Havana eyed him suspiciously. “You never said anything about that. What did it say?”
“Too? Don’t tell me you also got one.” Oh, man. This was too much. “Apparently we should have compared notes way before this. Mine said I was going to be bowled over by a redheaded dynamo who would give me a lot of crap before finally figuring out that I was her soul mate.”
