Page 20

FINN

T hree weeks after Robert Vance's body is removed from my cabin, I stand on the deck watching the sunset paint the mountains gold. The FBI investigation is closed. The media frenzy over Nova Wilde's stalker has mostly subsided. Life on the mountain has returned to something resembling normal.

Except nothing is normal anymore. Nothing will ever be normal again.

Because Nova is still here.

I hear her footsteps behind me, already so familiar I can identify them without looking. The soft pad of bare feet on wooden boards, unhurried and comfortable, as if she's walked this deck a thousand times instead of just a little over a month.

"Penny for your thoughts," she says, sliding her arms around my waist from behind, her cheek resting against my back.

"Thinking about how everything's changed," I admit, covering her hands with mine. "How you've changed everything."

"Good changes or bad changes?" There's a lightness in her voice that wasn't there when I first met her, a security that comes from knowing she's safe. That she's wanted. That she belongs.

I turn in her arms, looking down at the woman who crashed into my life less than a month ago and somehow made herself essential to my happiness. "The best changes."

She smiles, rising on her toes to press a kiss to my lips. A casual gesture of affection that still amazes me every time. That Nova Wilde chooses to kiss me. To love me. To share my bed and my life. To make a life with me on this mountain far from the spotlight she's known since childhood.

"Your brother called," she says, settling back on her heels. "Sawyer wants us at the main house for dinner tonight. Apparently the whole clan is gathering."

"Sunday dinner," I nod, the McKenna tradition I've mostly avoided since returning to Grizzly Ridge. "We don't have to go if you're not ready."

"Not ready to meet your entire extended family, you mean?" She laughs, the sound still the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. "Finn, I've performed for stadiums of screaming fans. I think I can handle dinner with the McKennas."

"You'd be surprised. My family can be more intimidating than a stadium."

"I've already met your brothers. They helped save my life, remember? How much more intimidating could the rest of the family be?"

I think about the McKenna women. Harper with her direct questions and perceptive eyes. Tessa with her protective instincts for those she considers family. Riley with her unflinching honesty. The wives who have joined our clan through marriage but who often run the show behind the scenes.

"You have no idea," I mutter, but there's no real concern behind it. My family will love Nova because I love her. Because she's brave and strong and has somehow seen past all my walls to the man underneath.

"Well, I'm looking forward to it," she says, moving to stand beside me at the railing. "To meeting everyone properly. To being introduced as."

She pauses, and I catch the flash of uncertainty that crosses her face. We haven't defined what she is to me. Not officially. Not in words meant for others to hear.

"As the woman I love," I finish for her, taking her hand in mine. "As the person who changed everything. As the most important person in my life."

Her smile blooms, bright and genuine. "That works for me."

We stand in comfortable silence for a while, watching the sun sink lower behind the peaks. Nova's head rests against my shoulder, her hand warm in mine, her presence a gift I never thought to ask for but now can't imagine living without.

"Frank called too," she says after a while. "About my security situation back in Los Angeles."

My body tenses automatically at the mention of Los Angeles. At the reminder that Nova has a life waiting for her. A career. Obligations and expectations that have nothing to do with this mountain or the man who lives on it.

"What did he say?" I keep my voice neutral, not wanting her to hear the fear that instantly climbs my throat at the thought of her leaving.

"He said everything's secure. There is now a new team vetted personally by him. New security protocols. New surveillance system." She traces patterns on the back of my hand, not looking at me. "He said whenever I'm ready to return, the arrangements are in place."

Whenever she's ready to return. The words hang between us, heavy with implication. With choice. With the future neither of us has been brave enough to discuss directly.

Because the truth is, I've been living in a beautiful fantasy these past three weeks.

Waking up with Nova in my bed. Making her coffee in the morning.

Showing her the mountains I love. Making love to her whenever and wherever the desire overtakes us.

Falling asleep with her in my arms, safe and warm and mine.

Pretending that this could last forever. That she wouldn't eventually need to return to her real life.

"And are you?" I ask, the question scraping my throat raw. "Ready to return?"

She's quiet for so long that my heart begins to pound against my ribs, counting each second of silence as confirmation of my worst fears.

"That depends," she says finally.

"On what?"

"On you." She turns to face me, those eyes that have haunted me since the moment we met now filled with a vulnerability she rarely allows anyone to see.

"On what you want. On whether there's a place for me here, with you.

Not just as a woman hiding from danger, not just as your lover, but as. As your partner. Your future."

The knot in my chest loosens, hope replacing fear with dizzying speed. "Are you asking to stay?"

"I'm asking if you want me to stay," she corrects gently.

"If this thing between us is real enough, strong enough, to build a life on.

If you can see a future with a woman who sometimes needs to go to Los Angeles or travel the world for work, but who always wants to come home to you.

To this mountain. To the life we could make together. "

I stare at her, this incredible woman who continues to surprise me with her courage, her directness, her willingness to risk rejection for the chance at something real.

"I've been afraid to ask," I admit, cupping her face in my hands. "Afraid you'd feel obligated because I protected you. Because I love you. Afraid you'd eventually resent living so far from your world. Afraid that what we have is too new, too untested to survive the reality of our different lives."

"And now?" Her eyes search mine, looking for the truth beneath my words. "What are you afraid of now?"

"Losing you," I say simply. "That's the only fear that matters anymore."

She leans into my touch, her eyes never leaving mine. "Then ask me to stay, Finn. Ask me for what you really want."

The challenge in her voice, the certainty in her eyes, breaks something open inside me. The last of my reservations, my careful walls, my practiced distance crumbling in the face of this woman who sees through every defense I've built.

"Stay with me," I say, the words both plea and promise.

"Not just today or tomorrow or next week.

Stay for good. Make a life with me here.

Come back to me whenever your career takes you away.

Let me be the place you return to. The constant you can count on.

The man who will always be waiting for you, loving you, proud of everything you are. "

Tears fill her eyes, but her smile is radiant. "Yes. To all of it. Yes."

I kiss her then, pouring everything I can't say into the press of my lips against hers. All the hope and fear and love and gratitude that this extraordinary woman has chosen me. My mountain. My life. My future.

When we break apart, both breathless, I rest my forehead against hers, unwilling to create even an inch of distance between us.

"I love you, Nova Wilde," I whisper against her lips. "More than I thought possible."

"I love you too, Finn McKenna." She smiles, her hands linked behind my neck. "Enough to trade stadium lights for starlight. Enough to build something real here, with you."

"It won't always be easy," I feel compelled to warn her, needing her to understand the reality of what she's choosing. "The press will follow you here eventually. Your fans will want your time, your energy. Your career will demand compromises."

"I know," she says simply. "And we'll figure it out together. Day by day. Compromise by compromise. That's how relationships work."

"Is that so?" I can't help the smile that tugs at my lips. "And you're an expert on relationships now?"

"I'm an expert on us," she counters, rising on her toes to kiss me again, quick and playful. "On what we can be together."

I wrap my arms around her waist, lifting her until our eyes are level. "And what is that, exactly?"

"Everything," she says with the absolute certainty that continues to amaze me. "Everything we both never thought we'd find."

I can't argue with that. Can't deny the truth of what we've discovered in each other. Can't pretend that what exists between us is anything less than extraordinary.

Instead, I carry her inside, to the bed we've shared for weeks that now promises years. A lifetime. A future neither of us expected but both now reach for with both hands.

A home built on something true.