Page 48 of Luke

He kissed her softly, trailing to her ear before whispering, “I love you, Paisley.”

Her breath caught and instead of pulling away, she leaned harder into him. “I love you, too. So damn much.”

The tears did fall then. Emotional, heavy, happy tears, but tears just the same. Luke lifted her up and spun her around once before putting her feet back on the floor.

“I love you,” he told her again. “I love you both and I never want to lose either of you.”

“You won’t,” she promised. She wasn’t letting go of the happiness she was just starting to believe in.

As they stood there, letting nothing back in and keeping the world around them out, it continued to turn anyway. Before long, they separated and went about the tasks that needed done.

The ring on her finger no longer felt out of place with the declaration of love between them. It had gone from heavy to almost weightless, and each time she noticed it on her hand, she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.

“The guys want to talk about going to see your sister. You want to be a part of it?” Luke asked.

Paisley turned to face him, putting her back to the dishes in the sink for a moment. She didn’t really need to be involved in the planning and wondered if she actually wanted to know what the plan was.

“I’m good. Just let me know when. I assume that Catherine is watching Garrett for us, so if nothing else is needed from me, I’ll let you guys do the planning.”

“Skipping out on the hard parts, I see,” Luke teased. “I’ll let you know the details when we have them ready.” He kissed her quickly and left.

“I think your daddy meant what he said,” she told Garrett, who babbled back at her.

She blew some bubbles with the dish soap much to his delight, keeping it up until the water grew cold. Garrett’s laughter never waned, and if she’d been able, she would have kept going just to keep hearing it.

“I think I need to change the water now, mister,” she told him. “Guess this time, I should probably wash the dishes.”

“You haven’t?” Luke’s voice surprised her.

She jumped and spun, sending the soap suds she still had on her hands flying toward Luke. Garrett’s laughter grew loud.

“Really?” he said with laughter in his tone.

Paisley shrugged. “He liked it.”

“I hear.” Luke went to Garrett. “Do you think that’s funny, huh?” He blew at some of the bubbles and the laughter began again. “I don’t think I would have gotten any dishes washed either. Guess we will be doing them by hand until this is no longer funny to him.”

“Anything for him,” she told Luke.

“Agreed.” He stepped from Garrett and kissed her again. He was doing that a lot today, simple kisses every time they were near.

“Did you all make a decision?” she asked.

“Yeah. In two days, we will make the drive up there. Mr. Smith is on board with that date and has a counselor friend that wants to come along so if she wants counseling, we can make that decision right then.”

She nodded. “That’s good. I don’t know if she will, but we can try.”

“That’s all anyone can do for anyone. At least we can say we did, but hopefully she will want it.”

“I really hope so. It would be nice to have her in my life again.”

“I know,” he agreed.

“On to other things, do you have any idea when your sister might visit?”

Luke sighed. “Hopefully soon because I don’t think she understands the gravity of the situation she’s in. If my father is trying to marry her off, then it could end up worse than the situation with Catherine and that’s not something I even want to think about. She’s still ditching her security patrol.”

“Has your father damaged her grades or anything like he threatened?”

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