AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uh, I guess?”
“What did you come here to tell me?”
His gaze locked onto mine, and the fears that had been eating away at my belly ceased. He wasn’t here for the resort or any other reason—he was here for me because he cared. I could see it in his eyes.
But that didn’t mean I was going to cut him any slack. The last time I’d seen him, he’d more or less told me to get lost. He’d done it nicely, but still. Maybe my sister and I were more alike than I’d realized—I was going to let him sweat. Plus, I wanted to hear everything he had to say.
“The islands aren’t the same without you. We weren’t together long, but it changed something for me. It changedme.”
I wanted to say “ditto”and throw my arms around him, but I wasn’t about to cut him short when he’d driven all the way from the Carolina Banks to the tristate area to say his piece.
“How?” I asked.
He swallowed. “I think I believe in love now. That it can happen for me.”
My heart swelled, crowded my chest, and blood rushed into my ears. “Yeah?”
“Hell, who am I kidding? It has happened for me. Claire, I love you. It’s crazy, but I swear I do.”
Closing my eyes, I said nothing, letting his words wash over me and sink in.
“I know this sounds insane, because we were barely together, but it’s how I feel, and I want to give us a shot.”
I opened my eyes to find him searching my face, probably looking for confirmation that this trip wasn’t in vain. But I couldn’t find my voice.He… loves… me.
“I brought something for you.” He tucked his hand into his pocket and came up with a necklace with a glass orb as a charm. It was filled with sand. “That’s from the beach. I wanted to bring you a little bit of the Carolina Banks.”
Taking it, I inspected the piece. Objectively, the trinket wasn’t anything special, but it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever given me because I knew what this represented for him. He wanted to share his beloved islands with me. I was done making him sweat.
“Bennett, I—”
“It’s cheesy, I know. But I hope you’ll look at it and think of the islands and all the great times you had there. I want to give us a shot. I know it’ll be tough, but—”
“Bennett—”
“I’m not done.” The man suddenly had a runaway mouth. “I’d love for you to come back to the Carolina Banks, but I don’t know if that’s an option for you. Your life is here—”
“Bennett.”
“And I don’t want you to give anything up. It’s not about giving anything up. It’s about—”
I gripped the fabric of his shirt and yanked his face close to mine. “Shut up.” I kissed him, not holding anything back. It only took him a second to get with the program. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him. We lost ourselves in one another, a perfect moment.
A slow clap sounded. “It’s about damn time!” Stephanie called from her back patio. “And tell your dog to stop shitting on my bushes!”
EPILOGUE
Bennett
TWO LEASHES—ONEblue and one pink—tangled around my calves, and I scrambled to unravel them so I didn’t end up hog-tied and on the ground.
“Sit,” I commanded. Four brown eyes stared up at me, and after a moment, two furry asses plopped onto the ground. “Good boy and girl.”
I looped the leashes around my wrist so I could scratch both sets of ears at the same time.
Claire had returned to the Carolina Banks a week after I visited at Stephanie’s place. It turned out she’d had the trip scheduled all along because she was representing Markham at the resort groundbreaking ceremony. I was all too happy to talk her into making her short stay a more permanent one. Lyra hooked her up with a local rental, and Claire’s only requirement was that it allowed pets. The day after she arrived, we went to the shelter, and she picked out Maggie, a one-year-old dog of indeterminate breed. It had taken Larry about twelve seconds to get over his jealousy before they became partners in crime.
Mayor Stoltz handed Claire a shovel, and despite being dressed in a fancy pantsuit and high heels, Claire deftly handled it. On the count of three, the two women pressed their shovels into the small cordoned-off square of dirt. Flashes from the local media’s cameras went off, and just like that, Claire had made her mark in the Carolina Banks history books. Though she’d already made her mark in my life.
