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It’s a no-wake zone inside the marina, but I gun the tender’s engine anyway. Someone shouts at me from a nearby boat to slow the fuck down.
“Get the fuck off my dick!” I shout back.
I see Lu laugh. “Be careful!” she calls.
I nearly collide with the dock, but manage to jump off and catch the tender just in time. Knotting the line on a nearby cleat, I sprint for the entrance gate.
It’s her.
Far as I can tell, she’s really here.
Holy shit.
“You should’ve called,” I say as I fumble with the lock.
She shrugs. “Sorry for just showing up—”
“Don’t you dare apologize.”
“—but I wanted to surprise you. I was actually going to drive down last night, but we were worried I’d fall asleep at the wheel. I, like, legitimately can’t sleep without you next to me.”
The fucking gate finally opens. Then I’m grabbing at her and she’s fisting my shirt in her hand and we’re kissing. Mouths colliding. She laughs against my lips, clearly amused by my eagerness, but I couldn’t give two shits.
It’s only been five days since I kissed her last, but it felt like a fucking lifetime.
This kiss, it’s the kind that’s inappropriate for daylight hours. For any kind of public consumption, really. I drink her in like a man dying of thirst. My hands find her ass. I work the seam of her mouth open with my tongue. I press her into my growing erection, which, considering I’m only wearing my swim trunks, is likely—profanely—visible.
But Lu just giggles, rising into the caress.
I feel my body, my mind, coming back to life. Hunger surges through me. I’m starving in every sense of the word.
I don’t know if she’s here for an hour, a night. A lifetime.
I don’t know if she’s made any decisions.
But right now, just being here is enough to fill me head-to-toe with joy.
“Come home with me,” I murmur, pulling back. “I wanna lay you down, Legs.”
Lu moves her fingers through the hair at the back of my neck. Meets my eyes. Hers look lighter in the sun. Like honey.
“I’m in,” she says simply.
My body pulses. Heart roars. “Are you talkin’ about getting naked right now or—”
“I’m talking about everything. Us. You and me, being together. I’m in, Riley. One hundred percent in. I’m in love with you, and I want to be with you if you’ll still have me. I never should have left. I don’t need time. I need you.”
I can only stare at her, my lungs burning with the need for air. My heart stopped working somewhere around I’m in love with you.
“Yes,” I blurt. “To all of the above.”
She puts a hand on my chest. “Granny told me about what Pa did to you. I’m really sorry, Riley. That was wrong of him, and so, so freaking unfair.”
I clear my throat. “I appreciate that.”
“I wish you had told me. If not ten years ago, then last week.”
“I thought about it. But I—part of me felt like I should’ve told you, but another part didn’t want to put you through any more pain. I know how close you were with your granddaddy. I felt like I already destroyed you once. I didn’t want to destroy your memory of him too.”
Her eyes well. “I was close with Pa, yes. But over the years—even back then, when you and I first met—I’d started to realize he and Granny weren’t the perfect, infallible people I’d always thought they were. The image they showed the world . . . that they showed me . . .” She swallows. “It wasn’t real. And so even though I loved Pa, the memory of the man I thought I knew was already tarnished.”
“But not destroyed.”
“I don’t know. Maybe that memory has to be destroyed so I can start fresh. And I want to make that fresh start with you.”
I keep staring. “But on Sunday, you said—”
“I didn’t know then what I know now. I thought I needed more time to learn how to trust you. I didn’t trust myself. But after Granny told me about Pa, it hit me that you and I—we were never the problem. The world was. And I’m done letting the world and all its bullshit determine who I am. Who I get to be with. I’m done letting it make me second guess myself.” She searches my eyes. “I know what I want, and it’s a life with you.”
I have no words. Only feelings. Big ones.
So I kiss her mouth. Her neck. She laughs, loud and real, and my heart soars.
“Take me home.” She puts her hands on my shoulders.
I nip at her earlobe. “Only if you promise never to leave again.”
“Never leave the luxury yacht you live on?” She laughs again. “That’s a real easy promise to make, Riley Dixon.”
“Dolly don’t feel right without you,” I murmur into her neck.
