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“Nice.” He tried to grab the top of the branch to help pull it down, but he couldn’t reach it. “Dang it. I’m no help.” He held up his hand. “Not that I’m doubting you’re strong enough to push it down on your own. Pretty much nothing you could do right now would surprise me.”
“Oh, I’m not going to use my muscles,” she said, turning around to face him. “I’m going to use my brain.” She perched on the edge of the branch then gingerly sat down. Her body weight was enough to lower the branch and leverage the log up several inches.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for Luke to pull his leg free before she shifted her weight and let the log drop back down.
“You did it,” Luke said, examining his ankle.
She knelt next to him, her victory short-lived with worrying over his injury. “Are you okay? Can you walk?”
“I don’t know. But I’m gonna try.”
She got an arm under his and helped him to stand. He gingerly tested his weight on his ankle.
“It’s a little sore,” he said with a wince. “But it’s not bad. And I don’t think it’s broken.”
“Arewe?” she asked quietly, peering up at him. “Broken, I mean.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m so sorry, Luke. All that stuff I told you before. I realize now that only part of it was true. I said I was channeling my inner Sassy, but she’s still a part of me. So many of my actions this week were my own, or mine with justa hintof her. But all the feelings I have for you are definitely from me.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You were wrong before. Idoknow the real you. I’ve seen her plenty of times this week. And I just saw her right now. She’s the woman who cared so much about another person that she pushed her fear aside to get on a horse she was terrified of and then used her smarts to get me out of a treacherous situation.”
She shrugged, but his words sent warmth to her cheeks. “Anyone would have done that.”
He shook his head. “No, they wouldn’t have. You keep saying you were pretending to be someone else, but I think you were just giving your real self the freedom to be you. It might have taken more guts than you normally have to join the Dusty Acres Chicken Chasers team or to face down a Cheez-It-eating axe murderer, but the place you pulled that courage out of wasn’t from some fictional character, it was from inside you.”
She laughed at the memories of the chicken chase and the raccoon. “I know that now. I wasn’t living a lie. I think I was finally living my true self. But the reason I was able to do that was because during all those times I was scared, you still made me feel safe. You gave me a place where I felt I belonged. Being here, in this place, with you, I feel like I’ve finally found a home. And I don’t want to leave.”
“Then don’t. Don’t leave. Stay here. With me.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I want you to stay. For a week, a month…for forever.” He swept his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. Lifting his hand, he touched her cheek with the back of his fingers, the expression on his face so tender it made Kaylee want to cry.
“I didn’t fall for the woman who cheerily mucked out some stalls—although shewaspretty great. I fell for the woman who choked down beanies and weenies like they were a gourmet meal and who anonymously donated money so a little girl could get a bicycle. And who took the scary town grump a piece of cake then later asked him to dance with her. You weren’t pretending to be someone else when you did all those things. You were being you, and that’s the woman I fell in love with.”
She froze as her breath caught in her throat. “What did you just say?”
His lips curved into a flirty grin. “You heard me, darlin’.”
“Say it again.”
He drew her closer. “This is how I know it’s really you. Sassy would have given a flip of her hair and said ‘I know’ when I told her I loved her. You just asked me to repeat it.”
She smiled up at him, her heart bursting with happiness.
He turned his hand over and cupped her cheek as his gaze shifted from her eyes to her mouth. He leaned in, then stopped, his lips a half and inch from hers. “I love you, Kaylee Collins.”
“I love you too, Luke Montgomery.” Her words came out in a rush of air as her heart pounded against her chest. But this time, her heart was pounding and her pulse was racing not from fear, but from excitement. “I’m tired of being afraid,” she whispered.
“Me too.”
“I don’t think it was Sassy who made me feel brave, I think it was you.”
