Page 108 of Just Act Natural

“May I suggest people will love you more for who you are on the inside than anything that isn’t really you?”

This annoying, wonderful, beautiful, persistent man.

“You may suggest it,” I concede. I rest my head against his. “I thought I learned that lesson last year when I left Josh. But then I moved back here, and it felt like everyone had such high opinions of me…I don’t want to let people down.”

“If being yourself lets people down, they were never worth your timein the first place.”

“Do outdoor store managers double as therapists or something?”

He chuckles. “It probably drives us to therapy. I’ve seen some things.”

“Like what?”

“Walked in on my brother making out with his future wife in the stock room.”

I giggle against his back. “Did you learn anything?”

He slips his hands higher around my thighs. “You’re naughty.”

We’re quiet for a while, my hands wandering along his upper chest and collar bone. I’ve never thought about chest hair a whole lot, but I have to say, I like it. I think I’d like anything on him.

“Only a few days before you go back to Texas.” We’ve avoided dealing with this reality for a while now. It’s a lot easier to bring it up now that we’re not making eye contact.

He holds my legs tighter to him. “True.”

“Do you ever think…maybe you could be happy here?” Can he even hear me over my pounding heart? “Sunshine’s kind of grown on you, and we have a lot of mountains for you to climb. Maybe some of the people here could grow on you, too.”

If he can’t hear my heart, surely he can feel it hammering against his back.

“Princess, you have grown on me. More than you know.”

He reaches around to pull me into a front carry position with his arms bracing me at my back. I keep my legs and arms around him because now that I’ve asked, I don’t want to let him go. It doesn’t seem possible we could be so right together only to know each other for a single month. How is that fair?

As I suspected, this is much more difficult when I’m staring into his eyes. They hold too many apologies for me to cling to hope.

“My parents called yesterday.”

I do not like this preface.

“They offered me the CEO position.”

My heart that’s been beating so wildly cracks. I try to tape it up with empty reassurances, but it’s splintering too fast. My patch job is just temporary anyway—any minute now, it will crumble.

“I’m happy for you.” It’s a whisper, but it’s true. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

He watches me for long seconds like there’s no right answer. “It is what I wanted.”

I nod once, shoving down the ache in my ribcage. I cup his face in my hands and smile as bright as I can. “Then you go and lead that outdoorsy business. You love the company so much, you’ll make a wonderful CEO. I want you to have the life that will make you happy.”

And I do. I want all the happiness and love possible for Grant, even if I can’t be the one to give it to him.

Realistically, this doesn’t have to be goodbye. We could try to visit each other. Weekends, holidays, vacation—the world is our long-distance oyster. But I can’t think about flights and travel times when I’m nestled in his arms.

He leans in to kiss me, soft presses of his lips that feel achingly like the goodbye I don’t want to hear. But then his hands splay against my back, bringing me closer. His kiss becomes more insistent, deeper. I run my fingers through his hair at the nape of his neck, holding him to me as if I never have to let him go.

Grant’s kisses are a thing of beauty—the perfect slide and caress of mouth, lips, tongue. I could let him direct me all afternoon, but I like to be in charge sometimes, too. We wrangle just a little, and I take control. Slow the kiss down. Indulge in thetiniest bit of torture. I nip his lower lip, and he groans against my mouth.

One of his hands comes up to skim through my hair and cup the back of my head. It’s a good thing because I feel like I could float away on the waves. I’ve lost myin charge of the kissprivileges, but it’s still a win.

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