Page 17 of Gooey

“Honestly?”

Winter nods. “Mhm.”

“I see us getting the hell out of here. I want you where it’s safe immediately. Somewhere that you choose to be, not where you’ve been forced to stay. In my house, preferably. My house that my family refused to let me sell. They’ve been keeping it ready for the day I decided to come home, and I guess I’m going to have to let them be right.”

Pushing her shirt back down, my girl sits up and puts her slime back into its container. “You would leave here for me? Even though this is your escape?”

Her eyes are shiny with emotion and I bend down, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I’d be an awfully dense man if I didn’t know you deserve better than this place, sugar. I can’t properly take care of you here. I want to watch you flourish and this place? It isn’t somewhere that you build a future. If you’d agree to come with me, my home would be yours. How do you feel about returning to the rest of the world?”

She smiles like she can’t help it. It’s sheepish and fucking adorable. “Well… there are a lot of things to do and places to go outside of here. I may have spent the last two years imagining being anywhere but here.”

“And you’re not scared?” I ask hesitantly. “To leave with a stranger who looks like me?”

She scoffs, pinching my arm in reprimand. “I’m not scared to leave with the man who jumped into the storm-riddled ocean to save my life. I’m elated that my handsome hero is just as taken with me as I am with him. I’m ecstatic that you have a house we can make into our home.”

I open my mouth to respond and she pinches me again.

“And I’m positively giddy that you’ve thought about getting married already. If you had a ring right now, I’d shove it on my finger and never stop looking at it.”

“Really?” I ask, astonished by the declaration.

Winter softens her frustrated features and stands up on the bed, leaning forward to wrap her arms around my neck. Her hair still smells slightly like the ocean, but mostly like her naturally sweet aroma.

“Really,” she whispers, the word brushing against my neck.

My arms enclose around her back, tightening our embrace. I haven’t felt a hug in a very long time, the last one I can remember being from my mother before I came here. This is a million times better than that.

Her fingers gently play with the bits of my hair near my neck. “Do you think they’ll like me? Your family?”

“My mom will adore you just for being the reason to bring me home,” I joke, laughing lightly. “Dad won’t say much, he’s a quiet man, but he won’t disapprove. Morris will treat you like a little sister immediately. And Meghan will tease me about our age gap, but she’s the nicest one of us all. They’ll like you, sweetheart.”

Grinning, she pulls back to smack a kiss to my cheek. “Tell me about them?”

“How about I get us some food and I’ll tell you about them while we eat? And you can tell me about all the places you want to visit when we leave, hmm?”

“Good idea,” she says with a nod. “Oh! Where do you even live?”

“Massachusetts,” I answer immediately. “My family has an estate there. My house is on the outskirts of it, about a mile from the other houses.”

Winter’s smile beams. “Oh my gosh, that sounds perfect! There’s this bookstore in Salem that I’m dying to go to. Massachusetts is where I wanted to go to college before…” she trails off, looking embarrassed.

“Hey,” I say softly, lifting her chin with a curled finger. “That’s never going to happen to you again. I’m taking care of you now, sugar. You’re mine, my sweet girl. You want to go to college? I’ll help you fill out applications. You want to stay home and make crafts all day? I’ll buy your supplies. You want to have a few kids and be the coolest stay-at-home mom ever? I’ll make it happen.”

My declaration makes my girl whimper, her lips immediately crashing into mine. Her kiss is like a declaration of her own, the force behind it saying more than words ever could. Before I let how good it feels overwhelm me, I end it. I need to feed her and get her hydrated more than I need to lay her down again.

“Let me feed you, sugar.”

Thankfully, she doesn’t press the issue. She puts her pants back on and happily goes to explore her box of items while I freshen up in the bathroom. With my hands washed and clothes put back into place, I try to excuse myself to go grab food, assuring Winter that I’ll be quick.

“Can’t I come with you?” she asks, standing up quickly.

Though I don’t love the idea of it, I can’t tell her no. “Of course, you can.”

“Yay,” she squeaks with a grin.

Skipping over to the door, she slips her feet into the pair of slippers Nancy gave her. Without hesitating, Winter snatches up my hand, threading our fingers together. Her skin is buttery soft against mine and I have to smile at how we look intertwined.

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