Page 117 of 1 Last Shot

I’m shaken out of my thoughts when Kane suddenly says, “I have a surprise for you. In my jacket pocket.”

I immediately begin vibrating with excitement, a grin stretching across my face. I lean over Kane so I can grab his jacket and pull it over to us—both he and Oscar let out grumbles at the disruption. But when I pull the envelope out of Kane’s jacket, Kane’s frown is replaced by a soft smile.

“What is this?” I ask in confusion. It takes me a second to read over the words, and even then, it doesn’t make sense. “You rented a car?”

Kane shoots me an amused look as he tugs the paper from my hands. “Not exactly. It’s an RV rental. I would’ve just bought you plane tickets so we could go wherever you wanted, but I figured you’d enjoy it more if we brought Oscar with us. So, I rented us an RV for a week.”

I’m still looking at him in confusion when I ask, “Why? Where are we going?”

He shrugs. “Wherever you want. I overheard you talking to Hailey about the traveling she’s done, and it wasn’t hard to pick up on the fact that you wished you could’ve done the same. I’m guessing you’ve only ever traveled when you were on tour with the company?” He waits for my little nod before he continues. “I figured we could do some exploring around the country, just you, me and Oscar. Take our time, go wherever you want to go. Get a real vacation in.”

I feel my heart squeeze at his words. He’s so…thoughtful. And no one would ever know it if they didn’t look beyond his hard shell.

It’s moments like this that I feel so unbelievably honored to be the one that he opens up to. That he trusts me enough to open himself up.

He hesitates, as if he’s not quite comfortable with the words he wants to say next. “We should probably be back before the fall semester starts, though,” he adds.

Pride blooms like a flower inside me. Because Kane picked that particular life trajectory on his own, with nothing but my unwavering support as his boost. He’s going in as undeclared because we have no idea yet what he’s going to study, but if some of his vocalized thoughts are anything to go by, I have a feeling it’s going to do something with helping those with substance abuse problems.

“We can totally do that,” I reassure him. “It won’t be during the semester, I’ll make sure of it.”

I feel it, then. The words that are constantly trying to escape lately. I’ve been wanting to say them for weeks now, but the last thing I ever want to do is force Kane to say or do something before he’s ready. And with the impression of love that he’s grown up with, I know he has a lot to work through in his head before he feels comfortable enough to say it to someone else.

So, I swallow the words. I force them back down by pressing a grateful kiss to Kane’s lips, and I show him my love in the only way I can right now.

“Thank you for the gift,” I whisper against his lips, feeling so incandescently happy I think my face will crack.

His mouth curves into a smile beneath mine. I melt all over again just from the feel of it. “So polite, princess,” he murmurs.

When I eventually pull away, it’s still there on his face. These soft smiles are my favorite because they’re when he’s the most peaceful. When he’s happiest.

Except, there’s something else in his expression right now. Something I’ve never seen before. Something that makes me tilt my head in question.

He slides his hand into my hair and, for a moment, he just looks at me.

“I love you.”

The words roll easily off his tongue, and there isn’t a single piece of him that looks nervous or unsure. In fact, he looks the opposite. He looks like saying those words relieved something in him.

I, on the other hand, swallow nervously. “You do?” I whisper.

His thumb brushes along my jawline where his hand is still sunk into the hair at the nape of my neck. It almost feels likehe’ssoothingme.

“Of course, I do,” he says evenly. Simply, again.

And there’s something beautiful about the fact that it was this easy for him to say. That, after everything, the emotion was so obvious to him, and his heart so full of it, that he could say it to another person, randomly on a Monday night, with no nerves or doubts.

I can barely get the words out myself. But after blinking away tears, I tell him in an overwhelmed whisper, “I love you, too. So much.”

And if I thought Kane’s first smile was one I’d never forget, it’s nothing compared to the one I get right now.

THE END

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