Page 142 of Boston
“Maybe you are.”
“I think I like Cousins Creek the best,” he said. “The initials feel like a lot, and I don’t want eagles, and that leaves Cousins Creek and Rusk Ridge.” He opened his eyes, tilted his head, and thought for a moment. “I like that too. It’s a good nod to the mountains we climb.”
“Youclimb,” she said as she settled back against his chest. “I just go so I don’t have to stay here by myself.”
He chuckled as he hugged her tightly with one arm, such fondness for her moving through him, filling him, and making him feel warm and comfortable. “I love you, Cora,” he murmured.
She bolted back upright, her eyes wide and searching once again. “You…what?”
He grinned at her, though a hint of surprise also moved through him that he’d finally felt the love enough to say it out loud.
“I love you.” He chuckled and gave her a gentle nudge. “What? You thought I’d say it for the first time when I propose?” He scoffed and shook his head. “We’ve talked about marriage. I practically live here.” He sobered, though it took a moment to truly get his mouth to flatten out. “Aren’t you going to say it back?”
After all, she’d never told him she loved him either.
A hint of redness colored her cheek. “I—well—I—can’t say it now,” she said, burying her face in his chest. “I feel stupid.”
Boston laughed right out loud then. “Come on, Cora-Cat. We aren’t embarrassed around each other. We talk to each other. We say the hard stuff right out loud.”
Didn’t they?
Cora gripped his hand in hers for several long moments, and oh, what he’d do to get inside her head. He gave her the gift of silence, because sometimes a person needed it to organize their thoughts, and he’d learned that Cora was one of those people.
She tipped her head back, and Boston naturally moved his gaze to meet hers. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and Boston touched his lips to hers. Mm, yes, he loved her, even if he hadn’t been sure until the moment he’d said the words.
“Yes, I love you,” Cora murmured against his mouth, immediately kissing him again. Boston felt her emotion flowing out of her, as she lived life with such passion, never holding back, never sugar-coating anything.
He kissed her as long as she wanted, and then she leaned her forehead against his. “So you’ll say yes when I ask you to marry me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Because you love me.”
“Yes, because I love you.”
“Mm.” Boston was no longer being grumpy. He simply liked—no, loved—being here with her, where he could simply be who he was, and she could be Cora, and they could say anything they wanted to each other.
He let those feelings of peace and love fill him, and then he said, “I love you too.”
“So…that’s the adventure,”he said, looking away from his storyboard, which he’d fully populated with the pictures of the cabin, the wildlife in the area, the bald eagle nest, the fire pit, the shed, and several pictures of the trail.
He’d included pictures of the meadow, where he’d stop groups of no more than six for lunch, and the crystalline blue lake from the overlook. He’d priced things out for a two-night trip and a three-night one, and he drew a deep breath as he faced everyone.
“Questions?”
Cora grinned at him with all she had, and she beamed around at her family members and Ernie. Kat finished writing something and then looked up. She wore a thick-rimmed pair of glasses today and her dark hair up in a ponytail. One of her twins slept in a car seat at her feet, and Mae held the other.
“I think it’s wonderful, Boston,” she said.
“You’d need smaller groups in the spring months,” Ernie said. “Right?”
“It’s two bedrooms,” Boston said. “Sleeps four in beds. If we got a better couch with a bed in it, we could make it six year-round.”
“And you?” Cora asked.
“Next time I go up,” Boston said. “I’m going to pack a cot. I can section off part of the living area if there are six people, so I have some privacy to sleep, and so do the people on the sofa bed.”
He looked around at them, his gaze lingering on Jeremy, who’d put together a lot of the outdoor programming here at the resort and lodge over the years. He glanced over to Ernie, and he caught him nodding a couple of times.
