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He dipped his head to press a kiss to my hairline.“Feel a little like I’m back at high school, and the prettiest girl agreed to go to prom with me.”
My face heated, and I grinned up at him.“Oh yeah, and who was that?”
He started to speak and then laughed.“Oh, hell no.I know a trap when I’m about to walk into one.‘Sides, I don’t wanna talk about the past tonight.I just wanna spend it with you.”
My heart melted.
I scooted closer to Rick, winding my arms around his neck, feeling the comforting heat of his big body against mine, and he sighed and rested his chin on my shoulder, and for a moment it was us against the world, and I wanted to take this moment and clutch it selfishly, never let it go, tuck it away from the light so it never, ever faded.
I love you,I nearly said, but I kept the words back.
What if he didn’t say it back?
Could I be sure that this wasn’t just a fling for him?
After all, hadn’t I told myself a million times that I couldn’t start anything, being an ocean away from him?
Yet here I was, with less than two days left in the U.S., dancing in his arms in his yard, as his parents’ wedding dance song played.
I was sunk.
Completely and irretrievably.
I had gone back and forth about a little no-strings fun with Rick, but really, once I fell for him, resistance became pointless.
I’d never tried a long-distance relationship before.How would it work?Wouldit work?Was I an idiot to even try?Would video chat and texting… And maybesextingbe enough?Could we realistically keep up with each other’s lives?
Rick sung softly along with the music, his lips moving in my hair.His voice was scratchy and out of tune, but that somehow made it all the more perfect.
I considered him a man of many facets.A soldier, a loving son, a man of patience who made treasure out of wood, who threw his nephew in the air and made him laugh with tickles, a man who’d passed the time on deployments with Tolkien novels.A man who could make me scream his name while I was spread out underneath him.
“Didn’t know you knew this song.Aren’t you just a vault of secrets?”
“Nah.”He lifted my hand, and I followed the movement as he spun me lazily out of his arms and then back into them.
For a man who avoided dancing so much, he did pretty well.I hoped I’d have the chance to test out his skills at future parties.
Jess and Connor whooped from somewhere in the yard as Rick tugged me back into place, and I felt a shiver that I’d be leaving my newfound second home soon.“I’m a simple man.Easy to read.Easy for people to know what I want.”
I loved being in his arms.“Is that so?And what do you want now?”
His gaze dropped to my mouth.“You can’t figure it out?”Rick teased.“Somethin’ I can’t do here, for sure.”
Excitement stirred in my belly.“Do you think I’ll be able to skip out of my own leaving party early?”
“I feel sure that can be arranged, darlin’.”He sighed and kissed my forehead.“But not yet.Lotta people’ve come here to see you.You should talk to ‘em.”
I leaned up on tiptoes.“It’s a shame that all I want is to be under you, right up until I have to leave for the airport,” I whispered into his ear.
He went still for a second, and then murmured, “Damn, woman.”He very deliberately dropped my hand and squeezed the one he held at my waist.“Go, before I can’t let you go.”
“I’m coming back for you later,” I promised.
He sent me a wink, and it made heat fill every fiber of my being.I let my gaze linger on hisfabulousass as he went back to the barbecue station, and then I made a beeline for Molly, Jess and Connor, who whistled at me as I neared them.
“Holy shit, I ain’t never seen Rick dance,” Molly laughed.“Should’ve filmed it.”
Jess hooted.“He’d never let that footage see the light of day.”She offered me a cold bottle of beer.“Saved this for you.”
