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“Yeah, whatever.”
“Don’t be short with me, Park. You know I was right to tell you to wait. You can’t go around making impulsive decisions.”
“I don’t need a lecture, Ame. I need Blake. I burnt the cobbler just a little, but I needed something to keep me occupied until dinner. Especially after you–”
They both materialized around the corner. He wore a black shirt with jeans, which seemed to be his staple outfit. His voice trailed off and went quiet. His blue eyes were wide, and his mouth parted open. I started at his hair; it was not what I expected.
He was a redhead.
“Blake,” he finished softly. Amelia bowed out of the kitchen and went out to the patio with Kate and Ciara.
He stood in the middle of the living room, looking at me in the kitchen. I felt naked under his gaze. Vulnerable. He took unsure steps toward me, wondering if his imagination was making me up. Once he was close enough, I could smell his cologne again.
“Blake,” he repeated under his breath.
He was inches from me, trapping me between his body and the island. He ran his bruised knuckles down my cheek, another check that I wasn’t a figment of his imagination.
“I promised I would visit,” I breathed out, shivering under his touch.
“What? But how? When?”
“I boarded a plane here about an hour after you landed. Look, Parker, I need to apologize.”
His head cocked slightly, and he narrowed his gaze. His confusion was genuine. I took a deep breath in and out.
“I need to apologize for letting you walk out of my apartment last night and letting you board that plane without being honest. Parker, you are intimidatingly smart and annoyingly funny. You push me to try new things, even things that terrify me, like jumping off a cliff. You have given me the incredible gift of color. But, regardless of it, you have given me the gift of a magical feeling I now understand as love. I am irrationally and unequivocally in love with you, Parker Scott Robinson. I don’t care if love is a feeling or a choice because I’m ready to choose to feel this way for you every day. I am so sorry for letting you leave the apartment last night thinking that I wasn’t.”
Tears crowded my vision again, and his face became blurry. He grabbed my waist with one of his hands, leaving the other on the island, and pulled me until my body was against his. His familiar fingers dug into my spine. He was breathing heavily and staring down at me. I needed him to say something, but he quietly looked at me as if I was speaking a different language.
“Parker, please say something,” I begged. I lifted my hand and lightly placed it on his cheek, not knowing what his reaction would be. He closed his eyes and leaned into my touch as I ran my fingers over his cheekbone.
“You’re here,” he muttered, finally convincing himself that I was real and standing in front of him. “And you love me.”
“I love you,” I repeated.
He kept his hand firmly on my waist and brought the other one to my face. He pushed back the strands that lay on my face and tucked them behind my ear. His thumb ran under my eyes, wiping away the tears running down my cheek.
“I told you I don’t like to see you cry,” he pressed his forehead against mine. “Please don’t cry, princess.”
“I’m sorry,” I sniffled and chuckled. “I never expected to fall in love with you, and now I know that I don’t want to live in a world without you. I won’t stand here and promise that everything will be sunshine and rainbows because it will never be, but I’m willing to figure it out with you. You’ve shown me a life with balance, a life where I go home at a normal time and have something to look forward to. A life where I can work and excel at my career but also enjoy it outside of that. Good times or bad times, if you still want me, I will choose you every day. I’m not going to ask you to give up your career or your life here, but if this is what you want, I’m ready to leave Virginia and give us a shot.”
“Blake, I can’t ask you for that. Your career means everything to you.”
“You’re not asking me to. My career has meant everything to me, but I’ve realized there’s much more to life than working a ridiculous number of hours a day. There are other jobs out here. I don’t care what it is as long as I can be with you. But after last night, I understand if you don’t want to be with me.”
“Don’t you ever think that. I want nothing more than to wake up next to you every morning and cook gumbo for you every Sunday. I just want to make sure that this is what you want.”
“We don’t have to have all the answers right now, but I’m sure,” I threw my arms around his neck. “As long as you’ll still have me.”
He took my face in his hands, and his bright smile returned for the first time since he walked around the corner. He needily closed the space between us, and I felt his smile as he kissed me like it was the first time all over again. He sent a shiver down my spine and laughed when I wriggled against him. He kissed me like he would never let me go, like his life depended on it.
“We can figure it out,” he whispered into my lips. “I don’t care if we live in Virginia or here or in Timbuktu. I don’t care if we have to harvest corn for a living. I love you, Blake.”
I pulled him into me and ran my hands through his bright head of red hair. It was an unexpected color, but I loved it.
“I love you,” I whispered into his lips.
“I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”
