Page 71 of Now to Forever (Life on the Ledge Duet #2)
Fifty
The food—even the turkey—is delicious. A celebration in the truest sense. Wren, Lyra, and Blue play every record and June’s boys end up in the lake with Molly. It’s loud and chaotic.
Ford and I stand off to the side. June was right; Ford swept me clear off my feet. At the table of photos, my heart is so full it might pop. Me in some of them, people I know and love in all of them. Even Gary and his maid, in some weird way, is endearing.
Ford hooks a pinkie through mine. “Tell me something real,” he says so only I can hear.
I swallow slowly, tightening my pinkie around his. “I’ve been working on a good speech to give you tomorrow pouring my heart out and you ruined it.”
He chuckles. “You done pushing me?”
I look at him, lips twitching as I fight a smile. “You think anyone will notice if we sneak away for a few?” I ask.
He bites his bottom lip. “I’m going to need more than a few. ”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” I tell him as I slap his chest. “Entirely.”
He chuckles and nods toward his truck.
“Where to?” he asks as he turns the key.
“Fight Club.”
He gives me a confused look but doesn’t argue, driving us the few minutes it takes to get there.
He follows me to the building—empty because of the holiday—and I slip a key out of my pocket, unlocking the door to the vacant side. Our footsteps echo as we walk in, and the door slams behind us.
“Do I need to be worried?” he asks, hint of amusement in his voice.
“Probably,” I say with a smirk, taking his hands in mine and walking him to the center of the room. “It occurred to me in your annoying mission to keep me with you that me and you aren’t the only things I want to change about the rest of my life.”
“Oh really?” he asks. “What else?”
“For one,” I say, “I came to an agreement with the Sellecks this week to sell the crematorium to them.”
His eyes widen.
“I had terms, of course. Wanda and Dondi stay on with Wanda in charge. And, contingent on everything going through, I bought this building.”
A breath wooshes out of him. “You what?”
“And Fight Club.”
His eyes bulge. “What? ”
“I didn’t stutter, Officer,” I say, taking a step toward him. “I want to turn this into whatever you want to turn it into. I want this to be my what’s next. My now to forever. With you.”
He rubs a hand over his face, which is covered in a half-shocked, half-ecstatic expression.
“You sure about this?” he asks, looking around the dusty walls and high ceilings.
“No,” I admit, lifting our connected hands and kissing both of his thumbs. “But I still want to do it.”
I knew I did. Even without a vision or a plan. Even if it’s reckless, this is my step in the next direction, and I don’t want to take it without him. Ford is showing up and I’m damn well going to let him. I’m done hiding. Done running. Done carrying heavy things.
Wrapping his arms around my waist, he kisses me, squeezing me tight and lifting me off the ground. “I love you, Scotty,” he says against my mouth.
I pull away from him slightly and slip a black rubber ring out of my back pocket and drop it into his palm. His lips tug to one side as he stares at it.
“Call it whatever you want,” I say.
He wraps his fingers around it, smiling wide. “What are you calling it?”
“A promise ring.”
“A promise ring?” he says coyly. “And what are you promising?”
“That I’ll fuck up any woman who looks at you.”
He barks out a laugh and slips it on his finger, knuckles moving along my jaw. “And if one day I want to buy you a ring? ”
“I’ll do you one better, Golden Boy.” I bite my lip and yank up the sleeve of my sweater, revealing a freshly inked murmuration of starlings flying up the length of my arm, seven of them outlined in blue and standing out bolder than the rest.
He looks from the branded birds on my skin to my face, so much adoration in his eyes I can barely stand it. Then he kisses me like he's trying to drown in me—the familiarity of it something I’ll never quite get enough of.
“You know,” I murmur into his mouth, “every new business venture needs a good christening.”
He laughs against me, but he’s already moving us toward the door that connects to Fight Club. I fumble to get the key in the lock while refusing to pull my mouth from his.
We make it—barely. And in the middle of the boxing ring with the only man I’ve ever loved, that’s exactly what we do.
He looks at me, I look at him, and then I tell him I love him.