Page 20 of Kissing the Boss
Something shifts in her expression, softening with vulnerability. "I came to Whitetail Falls looking for somewhere to belong." Her voice is quiet, sincere. "I never expected to find someone to belong to."
The words hit me square in the chest, cracking open something I've kept sealed for years. I sit up, keeping her in my lap, needing to see her clearly for what I'm about to say.
"I've lived in this town my whole life," I tell her, tracing the curve of her cheek. "Never wanted to be anywhere else. But something was always missing, and I couldn't figure out what. Then you showed up with your broken-down car and your color-coded filing system, and suddenly my world made sense."
Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears. "Jonathan..."
I reach behind the couch cushion, where I'd hidden it earlier while she was still asleep—a small brass key on a ring shaped like a gear.
"I want you to have this." I press it into her palm. "To my place. To the shop. To everything."
She stares at the key, then back at me. "Are you sure?"
"More sure than I've ever been." I curl her fingers around it. "Stay with me, Cassandra. Not just today or tonight. Stay."
A tear spills down her cheek, but she's smiling—that full, radiant smile that first caught me off guard in my garage.
"I guess Whitetail Falls really does claim its own," she whispers, leaning forward to kiss me softly. "Yes. I'll stay."
An hour later, we finally make it downstairs. Dale takes one look at us, Cassandra in yesterday's clothes with my flannel shirt over them, me with my hand resting on the small of her back, and smirks.
"About damn time," he says, turning back to the engine he's working on. "Mike owes me twenty bucks."
Cassandra blushes, but she's smiling, unashamed. I keep her close as we walk through the garage, not caring who sees or what they think. This is Whitetail Falls, gossip travels fast, but so does acceptance when it's real. And this is the most real thing I've ever felt.
Cassandra leans into my side, warm and solid and real. "What are you thinking?"
I look down at her, this woman who crashed into my town and changed everything, and feel a peace I've never known settle over me.
"That I don't need to fix anything anymore," I tell her honestly. "Everything I need is right here."
She rises on tiptoe to kiss me, right there on the sidewalk in full view of anyone passing by. I hold her close, feeling her heartbeat against mine, knowing with absolute certainty that she's home.
My home. And I'm hers.
Epilogue – Cassandra
Three Years Later
Morning light spills through the kitchen window, turning ordinary moments to gold. Steam rises from my coffee mug, curling in the sunbeam like a dancer. Outside, maple leaves drift from branches, painting our backyard in amber and crimson.
"No, baby girl, that's not for eating," Jonathan murmurs, his voice still morning-rough as he gently extracts a wooden spoon from our daughter's determined grip.
Lucy, just over a year old and already stubborn as her father, scrunches her nose in protest. Her copper curls create a halo around her head as she reaches again for the forbidden utensil.
"She's persistent," I observe, hiding my smile behind my mug. "Wonder where she gets that from."
Jonathan shoots me a look, eyebrow raised. "Says the woman who reorganized my entire filing system on her first day."
"I was being helpful."
"You were being impossible." But his eyes crinkle at the corners, that private smile that still makes my heart skip three years later.
He lifts Lucy from her high chair, settling her on his hip with the practiced ease that still surprises me sometimes—this man who once claimed he knew nothing about children, now moving through fatherhood like he was born for it. His t-shirt rides up as he reaches for pancake batter, revealing the strip of skin above his waistband that I can't help but notice.
"You're staring again, Green." He doesn't turn around, but I hear the smile in his voice.
"Cox," I correct, coming up behind him to slip my arms around his waist. "It's been Cox for two years now."
