Part of Your World(85)

Alexis was part of some elite medical legacy that I couldn’t even begin to understand. But every single time she showed up she still slid into my life like she belonged here anyway. Every single time it made it that much harder to let her leave and go back to where she came from. And when she did, it gave me a sinking sense of hopelessness, because how could I and this place compete with whatever that was out there?

She said she didn’t see a future with us. That our lives didn’t fit. I knew there were things I could never give her. At best, I had about as much to offer as my damn dog—companionship and entertainment. I couldn’t talk to her about the stuff her ex probably did, I couldn’t make the money she made or buy her expensive gifts or take her on vacations.

But I could love her better than anyone ever could for the rest of her life. That, I knew. And if there was even a fraction of a chance that might be enough, I was going to take it.

I didn’t have time to play it cool or let things happen slowly. I had to make my argument now. I was going to talk to her about the way I was feeling, I was going to ask her to let me try and make this work.

We took Hunter back behind the garage and spent the next half an hour washing my stupid dog. We locked him in the kennel to dry off and then went to take a shower.

She stripped in the bathroom, and I watched her as I got undressed next to her.

“I hope he learned his lesson,” she said, stepping under the water.

“You know he didn’t.”

She laughed.

Last week he’d gotten porcupine needles in his nose. Alexis had to sedate him and take them out with pliers. This wouldn’t have been noteworthy except that he’d done the exact same thing the week before that and clearly learned nothing about sniffing porcupines.

I couldn’t say I could really fault him for chasing down things that could hurt him. I couldn’t stop doing it either.

We’d already hosed ourselves down using the same stuff we’d cleaned Hunter with, so this was just a quick shower to wash our hair.

She stood under the water rinsing out the shampoo, and I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed the side of her neck.

My body reacted to her. Everything in me reacted to her, all the time.

When she called, my mood lifted. When I saw her coming down the driveway, my heart would pound. When she was here, I slept better. When she was gone, I was sad. She felt like the sun. Like she was the reason for everything. Like I’d always been waiting for her to get closer and bring me to life.

I pressed my hard-on into her, and she leaned into my chest. “Don’t you want to wait until we get out?”

I shook my head. “No.”

She laughed and turned around to kiss me. “Let’s rinse and get in bed,” she whispered. “We have another hour until check-in.”

We toweled off and barely made it to the mattress. I slid over her body, both of us still damp.

I pulled the blankets over us and caged her under me, warming her up. She nuzzled my Adam’s apple with her nose and wrapped her arms around my neck, and I felt like my entire universe was here in this bed, like everything that mattered was somehow right here in this dusty garage in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

Nothing could convince me this woman wasn’t made for me to love. I think my soul recognized hers the second I laid eyes on her. Our bodies knew it the very first night.

The power she had over me terrified me. But it also gave me clarity.

There is a peace in knowing the one thing you can’t live without. It simplifies all things. There was her, and then there was everything and everyone else. And only she really mattered. It was easy to know it.

I just wished she knew it too.

I hovered over her, kissing her softly. I brushed her wet hair off her forehead, and she gazed up at me with those beautiful brown eyes, smiling, and I couldn’t not say it. It came out like an exhale, like something that was always there, only now I was finally giving it a name and breathing it into the universe and acknowledging that it existed.

“I love you,” I whispered.

And then everything changed.





Chapter 31

Alexis



The words drained me like a plug being pulled from a basin.

I wiggled away from him and sat up against his headboard. “Why did you just say that to me?”

He sat back in the bed. “What?”

“That you love me. Why did you say it?”

“Because I feel it?”

“You can’t feel it.”

He looked amused. “Well, I do. And it’s not a big deal. If you’re not there yet, it’s fine.”

But it wasn’t fine.

“What are you doing?” I said. “We’re not doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“This!” I gestured between us.

“Alexis—”

I shook my head. “No. We talked about this. You knew this wasn’t going to be a relationship. You knew this wasn’t going to last. I get the job tomorrow. It ends after that, so why throw that word around? What is the point?”

He blinked at me. “The point is that I’m in love with you.”

My jaw set. “No.”

I got off the bed and started putting my clothes on.

“Are you leaving?” he asked, disbelief in his voice.