Page 139 of The Charm of You

“Really?” I scratch the back of my head, my shoulders hunched into a shell. “You think it’s romantic? Because I was worried you’d think it was creepy in a pathetic, stalker-like way.”

“It’s probably a combination of all that,” she teases and folds her top lip between her teeth. “But it’s more romantic than anything.”

Thank fuck.

She clutches the collar of my jacket with one hand. “I went by your house the morning I left.”

She did? This is the first I’m hearing of it.

“I wanted to see you.”

“Why?” I practically choke on the simple word.

A smile dances on her lips. “Because I’m stubborn. I refused to do what you asked and give up so easily. There’s something real between us, and I wanted to tell you that one more time before I left. I wanted to tell you that I am not done with you, Austin Kyle. Not by a long shot.”

I cling to the back of her neck and breathe her in. “Good thing I wasn’t there, then.”

“Why is that?”

My voice is hoarse when I say, “Because I wouldn’t have been able to say goodbye a second time.”

“And why is that?” she repeats on a whisper.

“Because I’m falling in love with you, Caroline.”

I scoop her into my arms and fuse my mouth to hers as she snakes her hands into my hair. Her kiss is like drinking the purest drops of water. Like an electric shock.

It’s like coming home.

I hadn’t been living—not really—before Caroline strode into town on impractical shoes and an argument on the tip of her tongue.

With her in my arms, I’m finally truly, completely fucking happy.

She slides down the front of my body and buries her forehead into my chest. When she glances up, she steals my next damn heartbeat.

There’s a challenge in her eyes, and before she says anything, I know she’s not going to make any of this easy on me. She’s going to wiggle her little nose, claw her way under my skin, and bother me to no end—and I’m going to love every fucking second of it.

I wouldn’t want her, or us, any other way.

“We didn’t technically say goodbye the first time, just to be clear,” she says as she slides her hand into mine and leads us toward a crosswalk.

I was right. She’s going to give me a hell of a time.

Sighing, I follow where she leads and say, “I think I’ll add know-it-all to the list of qualities you possess.”

“You have an entire running list now?”

We come to a stop on the corner, where we wait for the signal to change, and I spin her into my arms again. “I do. It starts with stubborn and sexy and ends with mine.”

I slant my mouth over hers, and I only stop when other people bump into us as they hop off the curb and cross the street.

With her taste buzzing on my tongue, I resume holding her hand, but she doesn’t move. Instead, she tugs me back, licks her lips, and says, “I’m falling for you too, you know.”

We might be in the middle of the busiest city in the country, but right now, every pedestrian slows to a pause. The entire earth freezes. My own brain ceases functioning.

Because this woman is falling for me too, and the warmth from that fact washes over me in waves of fulfillment, gratitude, and pure damn bliss.

Ispin in the middle of her apartment.

---