Page 89 of Simply Yours

This was it. This was everything.

The way she fit against him, the steady rhythm of her breathing, the warmth of her body pressed against his own—it was a kind of magic, something he never quite believed in until her. His lips brushed against her temple, lingering there for a breath as if trying to brand the feeling into his soul.

“I love you,” he murmured, his voice hoarse, unguarded.

Caitlin let out the softest sigh, her body melting even further into his. “I love you too,” she whispered back, her words slipping into the quiet like a secret meant only for him.

Jason closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against hers. He felt it in his bones, in the marrow of his being—this wasn’t just love. This was fate. Destiny.

For so long, he had tried to keep the farm from consuming him, from becoming his entire identity, but with her, it wasn’t a weight. It wasn’t a chain around his neck dragging him under. With her, it was home. It was family.

He could see it all so clearly—kids racing through the fields, their laughter mixing with the wind as they chased fireflies at dusk. Cousins running wild, the kind of childhood he had, the kind of life that had shaped him. He could picture the farm alive with more than just duty and responsibility but with joy and love and Caitlin at his side, rolling her eyes at him when he got too serious, too stubborn, too much. The life he had always been too afraid to want, too scared to believe he could have, was right here in his arms.

He wasn’t losing himself by holding onto her.

He wasfindinghimself.

The heart of the farm and what it meant to be a Baird.

Jason let out a breath, shifting slightly so he could look at her, but she was already slipping into sleep, the faintest smile on her lips. She was exhausted—he could see it in the way her body had gone slack, the way her breathing had deepened—but still, she clung to him, as if she needed him just as much as he needed her.

His lips curved into a smirk as he kissed her temple once more, a whisper of amusement sneaking into his voice. “I love you, Catnip.”

A soft, sleepy murmur was her only response, but it was enough.

Jason settled in, holding her close, letting the steady rise and fall of her breathing lull him into the kind of peace he hadn’t felt in years. If she was a dream, then he never wanted to wake up.

Because for the first time in his life, he was home.

In her arms.

Seventeen

CAITLIN

Have you ever wanted something so much that you could taste it? That was what this moment felt like—like biting into something so sweet, so intoxicating, that it coated every inch of her soul. Lying beside Jason, wrapped in the solid warmth of him, feeling the steady rhythm of his breath against her skin, Caitlin felt like she was dreaming. And that dream? It had always been him.

Only now, the dream was alive, breathing, unfolding into something more. Something terrifying.

Jason had proposed in the quiet, hushed hours of the morning when the world was still soft around the edges and her heart was too fragile to fight back. He had poured everything out to her, raw and unfiltered, promising that she was his home, that she was coming with him—always. And then, like he had been born to do it, he had slipped a ring onto her finger. A real, tangible symbol of something permanent.

It was everything she had ever wanted.

And yet, she was waiting for the inevitable crash. The part where the universe laughed in her face and yanked it all away. Wasn’t that how it always went? And she was waiting for the mental crash that was sure to come.

Wasn’t that how it always went?

You won the lottery – and got in a car crash on the way to get your check. If you wanted to survive a tornado, you needed to be wearing lingerie, put curlers in your hair, remove your dentures (if applicable), or ‘Donald-Duck-it’… because a news crew would find you for an interview. It was like a guaranteed thing in the south.

Grab your purse and insurance cards?You’re a goner.

Wouldn’t be seen in public like this?Man, you are gonna make it, and the internet is gonna watch your video – don’t forget to‘like, share, and subscribe!’because you have just become click-bait.

You get too comfortable, and the rug gets pulled out from under you - every single time. And now, lying here in Jason’s arms, wearing his ring, hearing his whispered promises of forever, she couldn’t shake the gnawing, anxious voice in the back of her head. The one that told her it wasn’t real, that she was just some passing fancy. That eventually, he’d wake up and wonder what the heck he had been thinking.

She needed to give him space.

A way out.

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