Page 51 of Infinite as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #3)

His throat cleared. “… Different to her. But… I can’t and won’t hold that against you.

That’s not fair, and you’ve proven over the years that you can be the man who protects her and loves her the way she deserves.

And you’ve obviously been dealing with a lot since this trip started.

With your mother, with tracking down a home.

It must have been difficult doing it all on your own, but I’m proud of you, Sawyer. ”

My eyes closed for a second, letting those words sink in. We had come a long fucking way from how things used to be. All that anger, bitterness, resentment. It felt so far away now. “It hasn’t been easy. Loving Holly is the easy part, but everything else? Yeah, it’s been a lot.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “Is… Is it the money? If you need a loan, you wouldn’t even have to pay me back, and I could—”

My head shook as I cut him off. “No. No, I don’t need a loan from anyone. Don’t need to borrow it. I’ve been saving. From the second she told me she wanted to be mine, I started saving. I’ll pay off that house for the rest of my life if I have to, and that’s okay.”

“That’s… That’s honorable. This couldn’t have been easy. All of it. Trying to find the perfect home for you two all while reuniting with your mother.”

“It was hard, but Holly got me through it. Holly gets me through everything. I didn’t mean to lie to her again and again. She just…” I looked over my shoulder one more time. “She can’t know about the house. She can’t know that I finally found it.”

His eyes widened. “You found it?”

“I did. Today. A few hours ago. That’s why it took me longer to get here.” My eyes rolled. “That and my damn truck breaking down. But it looks almost identical to the one she described to me. The size, the space, the location, the view. Everything. Almost , everything.”

“Almost? What is it, no lemon tree? She loved that thing,” he said, a slow smile stretching across his face.

“Loved making me hold her so she could grab those damn lemons, too. She’d grab ten of them even when we only needed one.

It’s nice you remembered all those things about her. The things she loves.”

“It’s hard to forget them.”

“Where is it exactly? The home?”

“Moody.”

He hummed. “Not too far from here, right?”

“I wanted to make sure it was close to you guys.”

“I appreciate you picking a place that’s not too hard to get to. It’ll be nice to see you and Holly. Maybe even your mother…”

Christ, I hadn’t even thought about that. That was supposed to happen. That was normal. My parents—one of them, at least—meeting Holly’s. There was something about it that sounded really good .

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I think she’d like that.”

Finally, he gestured to the doorway. “Holly’s in the solarium. You can go on in now. I’ll keep your secret hush hush.”

I nodded, up on my feet in a second flat before I raced out of the door and down the hallway, about to take on the confusing adventure that was navigating Holly’s house. It was hard to get used to the place. Too many rooms and stairs and high ceilings, but I kept moving, far too eager to see her.

I finally got to the solarium, the door wide open, and the first thing my eyes landed on was Holly.

She was sitting backwards on the couch, her hands tucked under her chin, keeping them layered against the headrest. Her eyes hadn’t found mine yet and instead stayed stuck on the windows.

There were fucking windows everywhere. In front of her, to my side, even the goddamn ceiling was just pure glass.

But it let all that light fly in, and Christ, if she didn’t look like an angel before then she looked like one right now.

There was a shine around her, her bronzed skin glowing, her Bambi eyes blinking slowly.

She really was too beautiful. And that girl was mine.

The girl who didn’t care where I came from, who didn’t care about living in a motel with me for the past two months, who didn’t care about the rips in my shirts.

The girl who I wanted to paint for the rest of my life, who I wanted to stare at every chance I got, who I wanted to love with everything in me.

I wanted that girl to be mine forever.

She caught me staring, her head lifting up that little bit as she met my eyes. “Sawyer?” she whispered.

“Hey,” I said, letting out a long breath. “Nice plant room.”

She sat up straighter, moving her hair out of her eyes. “When did you get here?”

“Little while ago. Your dad let me in.”

“You drove here? All that way?”

I shrugged. “I’ll drive for as long as I have to as long as it leads me to you.”

Arms wrapping around herself, she nodded. “You didn’t have to do that. ”

“No, I did. I woke up and…”

She winced. “I was gone. I’m sorry I did that. That you woke up to that. That was unfair of me.”

“No,” I said, head shaking as I crossed the room over to her.

It was stacked with plants, lush green leaves surrounding me.

My hands grabbed hers that were still pressed up against her arms and I lowered them slowly, replacing them with mine.

She didn’t have to comfort herself. Not when I was around. “I get it.”

“I was coming back. I wasn’t leaving, Sawyer. You didn’t see my note?”

“I saw it. And I know you were coming back. You didn’t take any of your stuff with you. You weren’t leaving.”

“Why’d you come all the way here if you knew I’d be back?”

“I love you, Holly.” It was a simple response. Just the one sentence, but that was all it came down to: I loved her. I loved every last part of her.

Eyes watering, she gave me a little nod. “I love you too. Just… Sawyer, having you lie to me… It hurt a little too much.”

“I’m sorry for lying. For not being honest. You deserve better than that.

” My lips brushed against hers, and I watched as her eyes gently fluttered closed, a sigh that I could only label as relief escaping her—like she had been waiting for that.

For me. I had been waiting all day to feel her too and I couldn’t help but draw her in closer.

“The day you told me you wanted to be mine, Holly? That was the day I knew I wanted to give you everything I could.”

Her eyes gently opened back up. “I don’t need everything, Sawyer.”

“I know.” I nodded. “I know, baby. But it’s what I felt, what I thought. If I could give you the world, I would. I know I don’t have a lot to give you. Just my love, and that might not seem like a lot to some…”

“To me, it’s everything. Everything I’ve ever wanted. It’s the best thing you could give me.”

“And I promise you I have a hell of a lot of that to give you. I’ll love you forever, Holly.”

She leaned in a little closer, pressing her forehead to mine. “I’ll love you forever too.”

“I need to know something, though, and I need you to be honest with me. Do you want to go to New York?” I asked, eyes locked to hers.

“You probably have a million places asking you to work for them. Big, fancy places. You might want that life. You might wanna go back, and if you do, I understand. I just need to know.”

“I don’t want to go back,” she said, voice calm.

“I don’t want you to say that just because of me.”

“I’ve had places offering me roles before I graduated.

I’ve said no to every single one. I said no to the place you saw in that email.

I can’t be in that city forever, Sawyer.

You know I don’t want that.” Redness flushed there in her cheeks, her eyes lowering to the floor.

“You probably don’t remember what I told you… ”

“I remember everything you tell me.”

She laughed, the sound soft and bright. “Not this, though. A few years ago, when we first moved to New York, and I told you about the house I imagined living in when school and everything was over with…”

I was pretty sure I stopped breathing for a second when she said that. “That was your fairytale.”

“Still is,” she whispered. “It’s okay if you don’t remember. It’s just a dumb thing I’ve been thinking about.”

But it wasn’t dumb and I didn’t forget. I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since the moment she told me.

It had been in my head, bright and vivid and just close enough to reach but still with that fuzziness around the edges that always reminded me it was a dream.

It was just a fantasy, just some beautiful thing I saw in my head.

I wanted it to be real. For her, for us, for our forever.

“You want the fairytale,” I murmured against her lips, my hands raising to rest on either side of her face, my thumbs stroking against her soft, smooth cheeks.

“I didn’t forget that, honey. I remembered.

I swear I did. And… And everything will make sense soon.

I’ll explain it all when I can. Every last bit.

You just gotta give me one more day, princess.

Just one more to make it all right. Do trust me? ”

Eyes wet, she nodded. “With my life, Sawyer.”

“You believe me? ”

“I do.”

Those two words had my heart jolting a little.

More than a little, because I felt them pulse right through my body.

It made me hold her tighter and made my brain short circuit all at the same time.

My lips kept moving softly along hers before I kissed her softly.

Not pushing my tongue into her mouth, not pressing up against her harder. Just us there, connected, together.

“All I need is one more day, sweetheart,” I said. “Will you give me that?”

Lashes fluttering, she nodded. Her arms circled around me, her face buried in my neck, fingers tugging at the material at the back of my shirt. My own hand moved to the back of her head, cupping her there, my fingers threading through her silky locks as I let that scent of lavender take over.

Just one more day. That was all I needed. It was there around the corner, so close I could feel it. And Holly was the only one I wanted to feel it with.