Her beautiful face softened. “I made my choice a long time ago. Wherever you go, whatever you do, however you live your life, I want to be with you”
Zane’s heart squeezed in his chest. He was nothing and came from nothing. And yet, he had made something of his life. He had a family now, and enough money that assured they would want for nothing. He had his brothers, a home, a kick-ass bike, and an embarrassing, but safe, Volvo. And he had dared to hope. Twenty-eight years old and he still wanted the girl he’d met when he was ten.
“It’s always been you,” she said. “Ever since the day we first met. I’ve loved you since I was eight years old and I’ll love you always.”
His world shifted, darkness becoming light, despair turning to desire. Although he had dreamed of this moment, wanted her with an intensity that took his breath away, he reigned it all in and kissed her with a gentleness that belied the torrent of emotions flooding through his body.
She sighed into his mouth and he crushed her against him as he had last night when they thought it might be their last time together. Sensation overwhelmed him: the coffee and cream taste on her lips, her scent of jasmine and the open road, the warm summer breeze, the softness of her body beneath her leathers.
“I have a present for you.” She handed him a package wrapped in pink tissue paper. “It’s nothing big. I’m sure what Jagger got you…”
“Jagger got me a custom set of pipes that he was planning to take back if I wound up in jail.” He gave her a wry smile. “So unless you got the same thing, I’ll love it. And even if it is, I’ll love it, because it came from you.”
He tore off the paper and stared at the photograph in the handmade frame, painted with Evie’s signature style. Jagger had taken the picture of him, Evie, and Ty on the couch one afternoon while they were playing a new video game. Zane had managed to survive for the first ten levels before Evie ripped off his head with her feline claws.
Emotion welled up in his throat. “It’s good.”
“Good?” Her eyes narrowed. “Do you know how long it took me to make that frame?”
Yeah, he knew. Because he had made one nine years ago, never imagining that one day it would be sitting on the mantle in the home he shared with Evie and their son.
Gently, he drew her down to the forest floor. He had hoped for this moment, dreamed of this moment. His heart made whole again.
And he made love to his beautiful Evie under the setting sun on the last day of summer in Stanton.