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I sighed in relief and finally got the desk on the cart. After loading it in the back of my truck, I walked back through the resort to find Duchess and set out her dinner. Then I talked to the overnight desk staff and headed out.

When I got home, I pulled up in front of True’s cabin in reverse.

Her front door was wide open as usual but she didn’t walk up before I could get her gift down.

I knocked and heard her husky voice before hurried footfalls gave away her arrival. “Coming!”

Her face split into the prettiest smile when she saw me on the other side of her screen door.

I’d had weeks and I still wasn’t used to it. I didn’t think a lifetime would be enough. Her hair was a little wilder than it had been before and her lips were bare, no longer painted in the shade of pomegranate that matched one of the dresses she bought so well.

“Noah! What happened to you? I was about to get in the shower, but I’m glad you’re here. Did you bring the cat home? Are you ok?”

True fussed over me like I’d been gone for weeks instead of an hour, and it was shit like that that made me fall so much harder for her every single day.

She pushed the door open and peered around me expectantly, but froze when she saw what was actually behind me.

“Noah, what’s that?”

“Can I come in?” I licked my lips, trying to combat how dry my mouth felt right now. “I have something to show you.”

True adjusted the lever on the screen door so it would stay opened whether she held it or not. Then she backed up and let me move the desk into her house.

“You told me you didn’t have a desk, so I made you one. I know you don’t have a lot of space in here, so I tried not to make it too bulky or heavy in case you wanted to move it on your own. Like from your room to the living room and back again. It doesn’t matter, I guess. Anywhere with the most sunlight…”

I was rambling. True’s eyes were watering and I was rambling. Ah, fuck.

I snapped my mouth shut and let my thoughts flow freely before I voiced the most succinct one.

“I just wanted you to have something so you don’t have to leave your house for a good writing session or fuck up your back, writing on the couch.”

All I did was blink and True launched herself at me. We collided with her wood-paneled wall while she rained kisses all over my face.

“If you didn’t want to drive me to the bookstore anymore, you could’ve just said that, Noah.”

“What? That’s not why?—”

“I’m messing with you, Noah. I’m sorry. It was a bad joke.”

She kissed my cheek again then grabbed my face, her soft hands bracketing my jaw while she smiled at me with so much affection in her eyes I felt like I was melting into her.

“Thank you, Noah. I think this is the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.”

“Anything for you, Red.”

More moisture gathered in her eyes and she blinked it away. I wanted to say something but I was enjoying her hands on me too much to disrupt the moment.

Adrenaline rushed through me when True’s eyes flicked to my lips and back to my eyes. Her lids grew heavy as she leaned in, inching closer and closer until our lips were a whisper apart.

“I want to kiss you,” she warned, waiting for me to object.

Instead, I wrapped my arms around her waist and sighed at the way her softness molded against me. Then I lowered my head, just a fraction, and took the kiss she’d promised me.

I smelled like outside. Probably tasted like it too. But True kissed me like I was the answer to something she’d been searching for and I kissed her back with just as much neediness.

I felt at home in her kisses. In the way she pressed herself against me so hard that there was nothing between us. In the way that her hands mindlessly went to my hair, her fingerslocking around my roots and holding on tight enough to make me kiss her harder.

It all felt like True. And it all felt like home. Exactly where I wanted to be.