Page 100

“I told your dad you’d wonder that.”

“Oh, yeah?” she asked, tears of her own forming in the corners of her eyes. “And what did he tell you?”

“That I should ask you what you want and give it to you. So here I am, asking. I’ll give you anything you want, Paige. Just say you love me and that you’ll give us a try.”

She looked at him, her teeth worrying her bottom lip in such a way that made him want to take her right then and there.

But he let her have the time to think. It was the least he could do. Both of them ignored the desk agent as she cleared her throat loudly behind them.

“I love you,” she started, and he couldn’t help the smile that broke through. “But I won’t go home with you,” she finished, wiping the stupid grin right off his face.

“Oh—” he said. His chin dropped to his chest.

“Until you get on this plane with me. One week away from all the drama, all the tragedy, all the past. Can you give me that? If you can, Owen Johnson, I’m all yours.”

He stared at her, incredulous. Could he get on a plane with her for a week of sun and making love and walking on stone-white sand only to take the woman he loved home to Banberry home with him?

“Yes,” he replied, his voice a whisper. He coughed. “Yes, I can do that.”

Paige squealed and threw her hands around his neck. His hands wrapped tighter around her waist. He would never give her up, never again.

“And one more thing, Owen.” He looked down in her eyes, lost in his future. “You have to tell me everything. About your parents, your uncle. You have to trust me, let me in.”

“I will. Starting now, on this plane. But, I have one condition of my own, Paige,” he whispered in her ear, kissing her lobe gently, feeling her purr against him.

She nodded. “Anything.”

“Marry me. I want to travel the world with you, Paige, but I want to always have a home to come back to in Banberry, and I want that home to be ours.”

Paige pulled back, her cheeks moist with salt water. She nodded and bit her lip again. He squeezed her so tightly he thought he might break her, but he didn’t want to let her go.

“So, does that mean I can let Aury have the apartment?” she asked, giggling.

“Damn straight. Call her from the plane and let her know she can keep the decorations up—you’re coming home with me.” As he said those words, his heart pumped as wildly as it ever had, sure he was about to have an adventure that rivaled any other he’d ever had. He was ready for whatever came their way.

“You’ll have to unpack, you know,” he said, wrapping his arm around her.

“I think I can manage that.” To the agent she said, “Any way we can add another person to our flight? I’d like my fiancé to join me on this trip.”

At this, the gate agent beamed at them.

“Congratulations. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Take me away, cowboy,” Paige said and kissed him.

Owen didn’t hear, see, or feel anything after that, after hearing Paige call him her fiancé. He kissed her deeply, and with that kiss, everything bad that had led him to Banberry, all the trauma he ran from, melted away.

He was holding tightly to his future. As the agent passed him his new ticket, he knew it was a future that he could finally look forward to.

The End