Page 87 of Sunny Skies Ahead
“I still can’t believe you let me do that, knowing that dogs aren’t your favorite.”
“I can,” he said, raising a hand to stroke his knuckles down my cheek. I didn’t flinch, didn’t even hesitate as I leaned into the touch, laying my hand over his. “Because that’s the effect you have on me. You make me crazy, Imogen Phillips. And I love you for it.”
“I didn’t plan you,” I murmured, slightly bewildered by how perfect the moment was.
Now it was his turn to laugh. He tilted my face towards his, gazing into my eyes the way I’d imagined a hundred times before. There were no secrets left between us. We were both stripped down to the core of our beings and it still felt so damn right. Nothing had ever felt like this, like the damn cosmos had aligned to give us this, like we’d met at precisely the right time. It was otherworldly.
It waseverything.
“I know you didn’t,” he murmured. “But it happened. And I for one am so damn glad it did.”
“Are you sure you want this?” I said, wrapping my arms around his shoulders again. “Everything we talked about that morning at the tiny house, about kids and marriage. . . all of that stands. I need you to understand that I’m not going to change my mind. I don’t want you to accept it now when we’re young and free and wake up twenty years from now hating me because I can’t give you what you want.”
“What I told you that morning stands, too,” Kam said, smiling. “No kids, no marriage paperwork. Just you and me and wherever we want to go next.”
“And Bass,” I reminded him.
“And Bass,” he agreed, and then paused. “How do you feel about getting another dog?”
I gasped in mock outrage, and his smirk widened to a grand smile.
“Do you think Bass would do well with siblings?”
He shrugged, and pulled me in closer. “There’s only one way to find out.”
I kissed him then, wild and open, unable to bear another second without his lips on mine. He met my advances step for step, wrapping my arms around my waist once more and lifting me from the island. I wrapped my legs around him as his hands traveled to my ass, keeping me upright as he walked us down the hallway towards the bedroom.
This is what I wanted every day for the rest of my life. This handsome, strong, kind man, taking everything I gave him and giving as good as he got.
No matter what happened with the Warrior’s Grant this weekend, I knew we’d be okay.
Because we’d face whatever came next together.
Chapter twenty-nine
Imogen
The next day, we spent the entire car ride in our own worlds. All three of us had different ways of handling travel. Lucas took up residence in the passenger seat, citing his motion sickness as justification for why he needed to be up front, and I sat in the back, perfectly content to gaze out the window as the rural Washington mountains gave way to highways and cities. When I got bored, I flipped open my e-reader and continued binging the fantasy series I’d started weeks earlier. We stopped for lunch at a gas station where we could both refuel and eat chicken nuggets.
Lucas let out a low whistle as we walked into the lobby of the hotel hours later, and I was inclined to agree with him. The hotel was hands down the fanciest establishment I’d ever been in.
“Before you thank me, I didn’t choose this hotel,” Kam said. “The Warrior’s Foundation did.”
“They’resowiningand dining us.”
I shot Lucas a glare and rolled my eyes. “They want us close by, goofball. The foundation building is only a block away. They’re keeping tabs on us.”
“Fine by me,” Lucas said, still taking in the vaulted ceilings and plush carpets of the lobby space. It was very new age and modern, with vintage accents sprinkled throughout in the form of a velvet armchair or an abstract painting. It looked exactly like a hotel I’d expected to find in a place like Seattle, the epitome of vintage elegance, perfect for someone who loved the eclectic and moody rather than dreary beige tones.
Kameron left Lucas gawking in the middle of the lobby, and I awkwardly found a seat, determined to keep my distance from the train wreck that was Lucas Morales. He looked like such an outlier in this plush hotel with his black beard, flannel, and worn in jeans and boots. He never failed to amaze me.
“I didn’t take you for an art buff,” I said teasingly when walked towards me, still regarding the large artwork in the foyer.
“I’m not,” Lucas said, rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m mostly trying to figure out how they got it up there in the first place,” he said, gesturing to a massive painting on the right wall. Large, overlapping brushstrokes dominated the canvas. The artist had chosen mostly earthy tones that reflected the Washington forests. It was the kind of painting that housed a different interpretation for every person who looked at it.
The illustration brought me a small sense of comfort. It felt like there was a small piece of Watford hanging in the hotel.If I was a believer in some kind of higher power, I would have taken that as a sign of good things to come.
“We’re all checked in,” Kameron said, returning to us. I grabbed my duffel bag and stood, gesturing for him to lead the way to the elevator. Lucas fell in line behind us, and I rolled my eyes when I noticed he’d been staring at a woman from across the lobby. The man wasted no time. Lucas had already regaled me with tales of how it was “slim pickings” in Watford, and he was ready to hang out in a bigger city for a while.
