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Zac dropped his hands and looked at Cassie, drinking her in. “I intend to.”
He shifted in his seat and the pick hanging inside his shirt pressed against his chest. He reached for it, fished it out of his T-shirt, and curled his fingers around it.
Cassie’s hand found its way into his other one. She squeezed. “Everything okay?”
“Come with me,” he said, pulling her up to stand.
He tossed a smile at the others around the table, then led Cassie to the edge of the cliff that overlooked the ocean.
He took in the view. The sun was low on the horizon, the sky darkening shades of purple and pink and gold. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She turned to look at the view and let out a deep sigh of appreciation. “It’s incredible. I feel like I could stand here for hours just watching the sun dissolve into the ocean and the colors bleed from the sky until all that’s left are diamonds scattered on black velvet.”
“Still a poet, I see.”
She laughed lightly. “Not my finest work.”
“So, what is your finest work?”
The corners of her lips curled up. “Nothing you’ll ever see.”
He turned to face her. “Why not?”
“It’s in my head.”
“You’ve never written it down?”
She smiled, her eyes still fixed on the horizon. “I don’t need to.”
He crossed his arms and studied her profile. “What’s this poem about?”
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “You. It’s the words that run through my head every time I see you.”
His heart stalled as he took in the delicate lines of her face, her dark lashes, her sapphire blue eyes made temporarily lighter by the rays of the setting sun. She was so damn gorgeous, in body and soul. And she was his. She was giving him her heart, and he was going to treasure it the way it should be treasured. The way everyone else in her life should have treasured it. The way his father should have treasured the hearts that were in his care.
Suddenly reminded of what had brought him over there, Zac reached up and pulled the leather band from around his neck.
“I wondered if you still had that,” Cassie said.
He held it up, watching it spin against the darkening sky. “I’ve spent too long holding onto painful memories instead of trying to make good ones of my own. It’s about time I got rid of it.”
He looked around and picked up a small stone, wrapping the leather band tightly around it. He pulled his arm back and threw it as hard as he could, watching with satisfaction as it arced out and down. It disappeared from sight before it hit the surface of the water. But he didn’t have to see it sink to know it was gone.
Cassie put her hand on his back and smoothed it up and down. His gaze met hers, and there was so much love there, it hit him like a blow to the chest. He faced her, cupping her cheeks and brushing his thumbs over them.
“I love you, Cassie,” he said. “I love you so fucking much. I don’t know where this journey is going to take us. I just know I want you with me. I want it all. Everything.”
Her lips parted, her eyes shimmering. “I love you, too, Zac. I think the journey is going to be amazing regardless of where we end up.”
What he saw in her eyes didn’t scare him now. Whatever was there, he wanted to be the one to give it to her. To share with her the home and family they’d hopefully build together.
He feathered his lips over hers once, twice, before deepening the kiss.
The holes in his heart had been filled. He had everything. His music, his bands, his family.
And Cassie. He had Cassie.
He’d been in the right place at the right time.
