Page 56 of One Small Secret

“But I di—” My protest is stopped with a finger to my lips. I resist the urge to bite it. Barely.

“Do you know what it’s like to be around you? You are a whirlwind—a tornado. You are full of ideas and passions and you're always going, going, going. The first time I thought about telling you how I felt was right before senior prom. I thought I would ask you to the dance, and one thing would lead to another, and you would maybe see me as something more than your competition. But then Garret Paisley asked you instead. You two ended up dating, and I cursed myself for missing my chance, but the moment you left for college you broke up with him.”

“We were going to different colleges. It never would have worked.”

“And how sad were you?”

I shrug. “Not much.” His hand settles on top of my legs. It’s heavy and warm, and it feels like he's trying to keep me here. Which is kind of crazy, because where else would I go? With every word out of Ruben’s mouth, my world settles more into the space of this seat.

Ruben tightens his arm around my waist and tucks my head under his chin. “I hadn’t missed my chance. Garret had. He got in your way before you were ready to take root.”

I snuggle closer to him. “I’m not that bad, am I?”

I feel a low chuckle deep in his chest. “Why do you think your mom wants you to work at Palmer Hotels so badly? It isn’t because she loves my family so much. We're just the only Fortune 500 company within 200 miles of Rosco and she wants to be a part of your life.”

He might have a point there.

“I’m not willing to risk losing you again because I waited too long,” Ruben says. “I don’t know if you're ready for us. But I can’t live through another moment thinking I’ve missed my chance. Not without asking you first to love me.”

I bite my lip and close my eyes. Is Ruben really saying these things, or has the night of partying gone to my head? “So you don’t want to fake kiss me?”

“Never.”

“Because I really enjoyed those fake kisses.”

He puts his hand under my chin and lifts me off of his chest so he can look me in the eye. When he speaks again, it’s his cologne commercial voice. “None of them were fake.”

It’s time to be done with avoiding or teasing. When I smile at him, I know it's shaky, but his fingers under my chin aren’t exactly steady either. “They weren’t for me, either.”

He closes his eyes, almost as if he’s in pain. “Are you ready, then?”

He doesn’t say what I should be ready for, but I know what he means. Ready for us. Ready to put everything aside if it means it will hurt us. So help me, I would even burn down that not-yet-built Laos hotel if it got in our way. I nod and press my forehead against his. “Maybe I should save your fish for later. I just thought of a different present for you.”

“I’m a patient man. I can wait another week or so for that fish.”

“Good.” Warmth surrounds me like I’ve sunk into a hot bath, and I’m so comfortable in this bath, I never want to leave it. “Ruben, I love you.” His hands tighten around my waist. “I think I’ve loved you for much longer than I realized. You’ve been watching me, but I’ve been chasing you, and not for the right reasons. I think I’ve just wanted to fit into your world, and I’m sorry it took a fake news story for me to realize it. My love is my gift.”

His eyes are soft, not storming, but they still manage to flash. He tips his head to one side and smirks. “That’s it?”

“What?” I push away from him and stick my tongue out. “That’s a lot.”

His eyes darken and he swallows hard. Who would have thought me being childish was attractive? “It’s everything.” He kisses the tip of my nose and shrugs. “I just thought you might also give me a kiss that I know is real.”

I put on the biggest pout I can muster and groan. “Geez, fine.”

But before I kiss him, I want one more good look at him. He looks tired and rumpled and just as sexy folded into this airplane seat as he ever looked in any of his photoshoots. And this man is mine. I will never have to buy another magazine in my life.

Ruben’s eyes roam my face. “I wish I had a camera.”

“Why?”

“Your smile looks like it belongs on the cover of Teen Heartthrob.”

I laugh and finally bring my mouth down on his. He scoots me closer and pushes a button on the arm rest. The seat falls back with a jerk and I laugh against his lips. My laugh is cut short when his fingers thread through my hair and then nudge me into a deeper kiss. The plane juts forward on the runway and I sink into Ruben. Gravity tries to pull us back down to earth, but all it manages to do is crush us together. I’m forever ruined by the man beneath me. I will never be able to fly in a not-Ruben seat. This is the only way to travel.

We reach altitude before Ruben finally pulls his head to the side. I groan, because I am not ready to be a grown up yet. I’ve got about half a billion adolescent dreams to fulfill and he’s interrupting them. But once his face comes into focus, I stop complaining. He’s even more rumpled than when we boarded, but his eyes practically glow in the dim lighting. He takes a deep breath and I rise and fall with it. “I never thought it was possible,” he says in my ear, “but you may have found a better present than a singing fish.”

I snort. “You’re only saying that because you know I have the singing fish in my suitcase.”

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