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I will love you for who you are, always.
I will protect you.
And I will always make sure you know that you are loved.
I barely registered that the sheriff and his deputy had left. I stood at the counter still holding the pen in my hand, twirling it over my fingers.
“That’s it, then?” I asked.
“That’s it.”
“They can’t come here.”
“No, not unless they want to face the law. I’d be more scared of me, though,” he said with a short laugh that snapped me back to reality in an instant. I turned to face him fully and lunged, wrapping my arms around him.
He staggered backward but found his footing, his arms wrapping protectively around me as I came undone and fell to pieces.
Every moment I’d ever felt unloved, uncared for, and not good enough came rushing to the surface as I sobbed into his shirt, wetting the fabric.
His fingers slid up my neck and into my hair. He held my head against his shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, but his voice was heavy and strained. “It’s over.”
“And now I have nothing, Pete. I have no money. I’ve always relied on people to take care of me, and now there’s no one but you to do so. I feel like a burden. I am a burden to you—”
“Stop,” he whispered, but I went on.
“You shouldn’t have had to deal with this mess. With me. With my parents! I am so sorry. I never wanted this.”
“I don’t care,” he whispered into my hair. “Sierra, I don’t care.”
“You should care!” I pushed away from him. “I have nothing to offer you—”
“What kind of man do you think I am, Sierra?” he said, anger flaring in each word. “Do you think I want something in exchange for you? Like Jonah did? Did you think I did all of this, took care of you, stayed by your side because I thought I’d get something out of it?”
“I don’t have a trust fund—”
“I don’t give a shit about a trust fund. I only care about you.”
He took my face between his hands and kissed me thoroughly, his lips tilting over mine and tongue parting my mouth. I choked back a sob and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“I only want you,” he whispered against my lips, his voice breathless and full of desire, heat, and love. “I’ve only ever wanted you.”
“Pete—”
“I will fight my entire life for you, Sierra. All I need from you, forever, is an understanding that there is nothing about you that I don’t want.”
My heart lurched in my chest as I held him for dear life.
“I think we need to have that talk now,” he whispered, then pulled away.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pete
I’d never told a person I loved them before. Well, not anyone outside of my father. I wasn’t a religious man. I didn’t hold some sacred vow in my heart about only telling the woman I planned to marry that I loved her.
But I was in love with Sierra, and there was no way around that truth. For weeks, I told myself my feelings for her stemmed from our situation. Stemmed from the duty I felt to protect and honor her as the mother of my child.
