Page 112 of The Moments You Were Mine

I wrapped my arms around his neck and moved so our mouths collided. I devoured him the way he’d consumed me this morning and tried to infuse the kiss with all the feelings I’d always had for him, but also the same promises he was making to me. I would do my best to make sure he never regretted this decision.

“It’s not your job to take away the pain, Parker. Not as myfriend or my lover or my husb-band,” I stuttered over the word. “We just have to help each other through the challenges this life throws at us until we get to the other side of them.”

We stared into each other’s eyes for so long that I thought the world had stopped.

Then, he was kissing me again, as if there would never be another time for us to do just this.

We were still locked in the embrace when the door of the house opened behind us, and Whitney said, “Hey, Parker, did you—”

We twisted around to see the astonishment on her face. She recovered quickly and, to my surprise, grinned.

“Are you going to stand outside kissing all day, or are you going to come inside and have lunch?”

There was laughter in her voice and maybe even a hint of joy. I’d expected Jim and Whitney to be concerned about this sudden change in Parker’s and my relationship, especially considering everything happening with me and the ranch. But when I was brave enough to meet her eyes, I saw nothing but happiness.

Would it change when she learned we were rushing to get married? Or when she found out about the baby? Or the factParker was talking about living with me at the ranch as if he’d already left his SEAL team behind? Because that was what he was talking about, wasn’t it? That was what waking up at my side every day would entail. But I wasn’t going to let him do that. I wouldn’t let him be my dad, turning away from everything he’d grown up wanting, no matter what Maisey had said. I’d make sure Parker still lived his dreams and accomplished his goals, even if it took him from us and the ranch for months at a time.

Chapter Thirty

Parker

IF YOU LOVE HER

Performed by Forest Blakk

NINE YEARS AGO

HER: I wish you were here for the wedding.

HIM: Dad said he’d never seen Rafe so happy.

HER: Sadie unlocked something in him. Maybe I should be hurt that I wasn’t enough to make him really happy, but I’m not. I’m grateful Sadie’s love allowed him to open himself up. She’s made us a family again.

HIM: You were always a family, Ducky. Your dad would have always gone to the ends of the earth for you.

HER: Maybe because he felt he had to, but family should be more than an obligation. Sadie has given us that. She’s given us the freedom to really love one another.

PRESENT DAY

When we stepped inside, Mom wasstill grinning. As if seeing me kiss Fallon on our doorstep wasn’t the least bit disturbing. As if she washappyto have found us locked in an embrace.

Would she feel the same way when I told her we were getting married? And not at some distant point, months in the future, but today.

She hadn’t seemed disgusted by my inability to keep my mouth and hands to myself. Had Mom always known, just as Rafehad hinted Sadie had, that Fallon and I were an inevitability? Was I the only one who’d been blind to it? Not the feelings or the desire—I’d known those were there for years—but the rightness of a future with her. How had I not known that the love I felt for her was exactly the forever kind of love my parents had?

“Where’s Theo?” I asked.

“Bathroom,” Mom said, heading back toward the kitchen. “Your dad called. He needs to talk to you about seeing Ike but said you weren’t picking up.” She shot us a look. “I’ll let you be the one to tell himwhyyou were ignoring his call.”

Fallon cleared her throat. “I’m going to put my bags away.”

Mom sent another smirk in our direction. “I guess you’ll be staying with Parker, and Theo will be in the guest room.”

“I’ll call him after we get settled,” I told Mom before scurrying down the hall after Fallon, feeling a bit like the time Mom had caught me with my dick in my hand as a preteen.

I caught up with Fallon just as she started into the guest room. I grabbed her elbow and propelled her into my old bedroom, a door down.

My room didn’t look the same as it had when I’d been a teenager. Mom had replaced the SEAL and military posters with black-and-white photographs of some of Rafe’s stunning buildings around the world, including the casino here in Vegas. But it had the same queen-sized bed and a navy comforter similar to the one I’d once used.