Page 147 of Take My Love

It’s a relief to have all the court stuff over. I can enjoy Thanksgiving with our families and take the next five days off with Posey.

She’s already getting ideas for adding onto the cabin since neither of us want to leave Marjorie, but eventually, we’ll need more space. I’ve turned my room into an office and sleep in Posey’s bed, but it’d be nice to have a larger master bedroom and use the current one as a future nursery.

“Mm, you’re nice and warm. Just the way I like ya.” She nuzzles her face against my bare skin, then presses a kiss above my nipple.

“Just got your comforter out of the dryer,” I explain, tightly wrapping my arm around her. When she texted she was leaving work within the next ten minutes, I got it ready.

Leaning up on her elbow, she traces her finger over my chest tattoo. “I’ve been meanin’ to ask you about this.”

I rest my other arm behind my head so I can meet her gaze. “What about it?”

“Tell me the truth. Why’d you get a compass?”

Wrapping some of her fallen strands behind her ear, I grin ather question. I’m surprised it took her this long to mention it because I knew she didn’t believe my explanation when she first asked about it.

“You really wanna know?”

“Yes. Tell me,” she urges. “Please.”

“It has an ambiguous meanin’ ’cause it can be interpreted in various ways. A compass symbolizes guidance, direction, and staying on your chosen path in life. But it can also represent a love for adventure, searching for personal goals, or finding balance and stability.

“That night we argued outside of Warren’s trailer and learned the truth of why neither of us talked about sleepin’ together, I told you I was with someone else and couldn’t kiss you. That moment changed the course of my life forever. Here I thought you regretted it, but then come to find out, you were under the assumption I had no memory of it.

“For years, I held onto that guilt of not talkin’ to you about it sooner and wanted to make sure I never made that kind of mistake again. I still have the image of you embedded in my mind lookin’ distraught and rejected before you walked away from me. So I got the compass as a reminder—that sometimes it’s necessary to change courses when it feels right or you’ll risk grieving what you missed out on by playin’ it safe.”

I brush my thumb slowly over her lower lip when it trembles.

“Another reason was your love for compasses and what better way to showcase an epiphany than somethin’ that directly correlated to the person who helped me realize it.

“I added the roses on my bicep and shoulder ’cause of your middle name, Rose,” I explain, tracing a fingerwhere the flowers merge into a silhouette of trees that blend into the compass over my pec.

“These are ’cause of that night you were dared to kiss me. You sat across the firepit and behind you was a row of pine trees shadowed by darkness, but the moon hung between ’em and gave you the most beautiful glow.”

Tears well in her eyes as she stares down at it, rubbing her finger over each tree.

“And I wanted to make sure no matter how old I got, I never forgot the view of our first kiss,” I say softly, rubbing the pad of my thumb over her cheek.

“Wow…I had no idea,” she whispers, choking back her emotions. “It means a lot. Even more that I never knew until after we got together.”

“If I’d told you sooner, you would’ve called me a psycho and Warren would’ve sent me to the hospital with bruises and broken bones.”

“Most likely.” She laughs through tears. “It is unhinged behavior to do that for someone you’re not even datin’.”

“Trust me, I know.” I shrug. “I never told my ex the truth either.”

“It really is a stunnin’ image.” She feathers her fingers over every line. “You did a good job designin’ it.”

“I was thinkin’ about usin’ it for my company logo.”

“Really?” She meets my gaze. “Did you land on a name?”

I’d gone back and forth over the past couple months on what to call the business, but nothing sounded right until I considered the path that led me here.

“Yep, which is why this was excellent timin’ of you to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Compass Rose Builders: Residential and Commercial Construction. Then the tagline will be: Let our compass guide your next adventure.” My smile drops when she doesn’t say anything. “Too corny?”