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He leans over and presses his lips against mine. “I think I might have gotten over that at last. Jesus, you nearly gave me a heart attack by flirting with Ben like that. I’d just started getting hopeful and then you went and took it away.”
“I wasn’t—”
He narrows his eyes into a glare.
“Okay. But it was done purely out of desperation, so you’re really to blame for that too.”
He leans over to kiss me. It’s very sweet. But then he mutters, “You could have just asked me, you know.”
I stiffen with a jerk, pulling away from him. “I know that. But I’ve made every other first move between us, and I’m getting tired of it. I’m not cut out for it. It makes me very insecure. So it’s your turn. You’re responsible for first moves for the foreseeable future.”
The corners of his mouth are turned up. “All right. Sounds fair. I’ll take over all the first moves. I’ll make so many you’ll no doubt find me arrogant and obnoxious. But just remember you asked for it.”
I try to hold on to my sober expression, but it’s a losing battle. I dissolve into laughter, and he pulls me into a hug.
For a minute, we just sit in the Jeep and hold each other until my insides melt into mush.
To cover for it, I finally pull away and ask, “So what’s my surprise?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He puts the Jeep into drive and turns down the gravel drive. “It’s not fixed up. So you’ll have to imagine what it could be rather than what it is.”
“What on earth have you found?” I ask, peering ahead but not able to see anything because the drive curves too tightly.
“You’ll see.”
Grant takes us around the curve, and the woods break. Only then do I see a little cabin at the end of the gravel. And beyond the cabin is a lake.
A pretty little lake.
I gasp and raise a hand to cover my mouth.
“The cabin is empty,” Grant says, sounding slightly diffident. “It was abandoned a long time ago. It’s a mess inside, and the roof needs fixing, and the windows are busted, but I can take care of all that eventually. The lake is good. Deep. And the water is decent. You’ll be able to swim in it.”
I can barely move. Barely breathe. “This is… this is for me?”
“Yeah.” He clears his throat and glances away. “If you want it. We’ll be running out of chemicals for the pool in a couple of years, and I’m not sure we’ll find anything to replace them. Plus I don’t know how long the bunker itself will be viable. All it will take is a broken part on the elevator that we can’t fix. Having to use the stairs in an eighteen-floor facility will make living there almost impossible. It’s safer in this area now than it was before because we took care of those Wolf Packs. And we’ll keep making it safer. Eventually we’ll be able to live somewhere else. I wanted you to be able to swim. I wanted you to have a home for when we need it. If you want… If you want it. If you want a home with me.”
I choke on a sob. My face scrunches up.
“Not that being with me is some kind of payment for this. This place is yours, whether or not you want to live here with me.”
My shoulders shake. I can barely see through the blur in my eyes.
“And it’s fine if you don’t like it,” Grant goes on quickly, scanning my face and evidently worried about my reaction. “Pretty soon we’ll start building out from the camp. If you want to live with other people, I’ll build us a house there instead. Or we could do both. Whatever you want. I just don’t want you to ever think the rest of your life is defined by that bunker. We can make it better here. We can have a… a real home. Anything you want, princess. Just tell me, and I’ll do whatever I need to do to make it happen for you.”
“You spent this whole week looking for this place for me?” I gasp, my body wracked with silent, tearless sobs.
He still looks a little nervous. He reaches out to take my hand in both of his. “Well, not just that. It would have been ungodly selfish to use up so much gas just for us. I was mapping out the whole region surrounding the camp so we know exactly what’s what and who’s where and whether there are any hostiles we weren’t aware of. So now we have a detailed map, which is something we need. But along the way I was looking for this for you.”
I’m crying so much I can’t respond immediately.
“Are good with this, princess?” he asks at last. “Like I said, it’s okay if you don’t like—”
“I love it!” I throw myself into his arms. “I love it. Whenever it’s time, whenever we’re ready, I want to have a home here with you.”
* * *
We only spend a little time looking around the cabin and lake because it’s so close to sunset, and it’s a lot more dangerous to travel at night. The cabin is a wreck after so many years of neglect, but I can see the potential. It’s got two small bedrooms and a cellar and a porch looking out onto the lake.
