Page 23 of Meant To Be

Our lives were intersecting again.

“What?” I sputtered. A soft laugh slipped out.

Dylan reached for my hand where it rested on the console. He curled his around it, his thumb moving in a soothing stroke across the back. “I said I think I love you.”

Joy clamored inside my heart, clanging like a bell with the thrill of it. I was so unprepared for this moment that all I could do was stare at him. “You do?” I finally squeaked.

He looked away for a moment, swallowing before he turned back to face me fully. “I do. You seem surprised, but so am I. I didn’t expect this. I didn’t expect you. I wouldn’t even think it possible, except we’ve known each other for years.”

He studied me quietly, and even though my doubts tried to interrupt, tried to kick the joy flaring my heart into submission, the truth rose through the cacophony. “I think I love you too.”

Pesky tears stung my eyes, and I had to swallow through the emotion clogging my throat.

“What should we do about this?” he asked carefully.

I took a quick breath. “Well, we’re both going to Alaska.”

“Yeah, we are.”

“So maybe we…”

“I want to try,” he said firmly.

Joy kept banging the drum in my heart as I smiled through the tears welling in my eyes. “I do too. What are we going to tell Wade?”

Dylan shrugged lightly. “That’s up to you. Obviously, I feel like I need to tell him something, but I assume you’ll have an opinion about that.”

I wasn’t ready to tell my brother. This all felt far too fresh. Wade would have more of an opinion than I cared to hear. I didn’t want his opinions to interfere with our fragile connection.

“Can we wait? I know we need to tell him at some point. But let’s see how things go. Because you know he’ll have thoughts.”

“Thoughts? He’s probably gonna punch me,” he offered with a wry smile.

“Let’s just go to the lodge. I’ll fly out, and then I’ll see you in a week. We can tell him after we’re both in Alaska.”

“Deal,” Dylan said before leaning forward and palming my cheek to kiss me fiercely.

Chapter Seventeen

DYLAN

“Hey, hey!” Wade pulled me into a back-slapping hug.

“Hey, man,” I returned with a grin as we broke apart.

Piper and I had agreed we’d be honest about running into each other at the airport and spending the weekend together. She said we would just leave out the fact that we’d had “crazy-hot sex.” Her words.

I asked her if Wade knew she was meeting her ex for that weekend.

She’d shrugged. “I’ll just tell him we broke up at the airport. It’s what happened.”

I watched as Piper hugged Dani and Wade. We got swept into having lunch at a big picnic table in the back of the staff area at Stolen Hearts Lodge with friends.

Dani, Wade’s wife, smiled over at me. “I made your favorite.”

“My favorite?”

“That mac and cheese you love so much.”

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