Page 127 of Blindly Yours

As he turns onto his street, he reaches over and takes my hand. “Driving you home to my place, knowing we’re going to sit down to a cozy dinner…just you, Kara, and I…it’s one of the best feelings.”

I squeeze his hand. “I love it too.”

He takes a deep breath and glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “You bring out a new side of me. And I think, with you," he pauses, "I could be the happiest I’ve ever been.”

My heart leaps in my chest, and I swivel my head toward his. “Really…?” I think I must have heard him wrong because if he really means what I think he does, this is…big.

He smiles as his house comes into view. “Really. I mean, not to get all sappy, but the way I feel with you…I’ve never felt it before.”

“I love the sappy you,” I grin as tears prick my eyes.

He chuckles and shakes his head. “You’ve drawn him out of me.”

I sigh and blink joyfully at him, running his words through my head again.The happiest he’s ever been.My lip trembles. “You’re going to make me cry…”

He rubs his thumb across my knuckles as he pulls his truck up the gravel driveway in front of his house. The headlights illuminate the front steps, where Kara is already waving eagerly at our arrival. “Look at her,” he chuckles as he cuts the engine. “Apparently, she missed me.”

“I don’t blame her.” I lean over and kiss his cheek before I take a cleansing breath and push my door open to step out into the cool night air.

“Hi, Rose!” Kara grins from ear to ear as she skips down the steps and throws her small arms around my waist. “You’reback.” She buries her head against me and closes her eyes.

I guess she missedmetoo.

It hits me harder than I expected, and my heart tightens in my chest. I squeeze her firmly and run my fingers through her hair. “I missed you too.”

And it’s true.

I think I’ve missed Kara and Nate and this life before I even knew it existed. Giving this a chance turned out to be a risk that yielded a thousand rewards.

Nate joins us and wraps his arm around me as he rests a palm against Kara’s head. We stand together like that for a moment, and suddenly a future with them flashes before my eyes. It’s still just a dream, but it’s beautiful, and it’s stable, and it’s happier than any future I’ve ever imagined.

“Who wants a s’more?” Nate kisses the side of my forehead.

“ME!” Kara squeals, releasing me and looping her arms around Nate.

“Then get inside and get those marshmallows out.” He pats her back and laughs.

When she skips her way back inside, Nate slides his arms around my waist and dips his head to kiss me softly. “Stay here tonight?”

I nod against his mouth and smirk. “Only if you chop up somefreshly splitwood for the fireplace. None of that pre-split garbage.”

He chuckles. “Deal.” Then he pulls back just incrementally and looks at me with those perfect, kind, genuine eyes. “I love you. And I want to keep saying it over and over again.”

“Go ahead,” I giggle, sliding my tongue teasingly across his bottom lip.

“I love you,” he repeats. Then he kisses me again. “I love you.” He grins into my lips. “I love you.”

I rise up onto my toes and loop my arms around his neck, then I open my eyes and stare deeply into his. “I love you so much. And for the record, you’re making me the happiest I’ve ever been, too.”

Epilogue

-One Year Later -

“I can’t believe you convinced me to do this,” Nate grumbles as the ground below us grows further and further away.

“They’ve been operating this thing for almost a year now. It’s perfectly safe.” I grasp the edge of the metal cage that’s carrying us up to a platform at the top of the arch.

The bungee jumping experience at the zoo opened eleven months ago, and ever since, I’ve been trying to persuade Nate to jump out of his comfort zone, quite literally. He has creatively avoided my hints up until this week when he brought it up himself and said he was finally ready to take the leap. I’m not sure what changed, but his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel the entire drive here tells me he’s still not so sure.

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