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“Where are you taking me, woman?” I ask over the lilting instrumental music a local band plays.
“You looked about ready to have a stroke,” she says over her shoulder while we slip into the shadows. “I thought some fresh air might do you some good.”
“And we’re sneaking off because…?”
She snorts at my suggestive tone. “Because I would like a moment alone with my future husband?—”
“I knew it.”
“To dance,” she finishes with a smirk.
My eyes roll as we sneak past the other guests to the lawn, where a nearby gazebo is softly lit. Music and chatter fade into the distance once we scale the steps, and I tug her to me, swaying gently while a breeze flits through loose strands of her hair.
“See? You’re a great dancer,” she says. “As long as you stay in one spot.”
I playfully nip at her, holding her tight when she squirms, but I can’t resist those tits she’s put on display with this plunging neckline. Her soft sigh is music to my ears as I leisurely kiss her chest and neck, breathing her in like she’s the only thing keeping me alive.
I want to tear her dress off and fuck her senseless as much as I want to fall to my knees and beg her to be mine in every sense of the word.
Heaven help me… I’m in love with this woman, aren’t I?
I don’t know whether I’m nauseous over the onslaught of emotion drowning me or amused that Cayce was right. I came to Small-Town Nowhere, Tennessee, and fell in fucking love.
Her smile slips as she searches my face. “What’s wrong?”
I love you.
I love you, and I’m not supposed to.
I love you, and now I don’t know what I’ll do without you.
The weight of that discovery hits me square in the chest, and there’s no use denying it any longer. My love for Molly is relentless, and it consumes me with terrifying ferocity.
“You’re going to be a beautiful bride,” I murmur instead.
Coward.
“Thank you.” She beams at me, unaware of the war she’s waging on my heart. I appreciate her touch of sympathy when she says, “I’m sorry your brothers couldn’t be here tonight. I’m sure you’ve missed them.”
I have missed them, and until recently, I hadn’t realized just how much.
“I’m not sure they would’ve come, even if I’d had the chance to invite them.”
“Why not?”
“Things have been tense between us in recent years,” I say. “I don’t know what’s happened, and I hate it, but I’m not sure how to fix it or where I’d even start.”
She tips those bright green eyes up. “I think I have a theory on that…”
“I’m listening.”
“When we were in Seattle, I wondered why your brothers weren’t at the ceremony.” She shakes her head, sifting through her thoughts. “Maybe I’m wrong, but I got the feeling that you didn’t invite them on purpose… That maybe you wanted to keep that part of yourself a secret.”
That revelation is like a hot knife in my gut. The truth of it burns from the entry point, spreading like a flame.
“I understand. You know I do. But holding back the things we’re struggling with or things we care about most from the ones we love creates distance. By shutting yourself off for so long, you’ve created a rift between you and your brothers.” Molly furrows her brow as if struck by something. “And hiding my secrets from Dad, while concealing who I am from everyone else, has created a divide within me.”
I hold her close as her epiphany settles around us.
