Page 124 of The Moments You Were Mine

Performed by Trisha Yearwood

THREE YEARS AGO

HIM: I don’t get how everyone flies to some sweltering Caribbean island for their honeymoon. Even the surfing wouldn’t be worth it.

HER: Pigpen actually pulled the trigger?

HIM: Yep. Three Frogmen down.

HER: I know you never want to do the deed and put a ring on someone’s finger, but if you did, where would you go for your honeymoon?

HIM: A mountain lake. Somewhere temperate with stunning views and plenty of outdoor activities.

HER: You literally just described the ranch.

HIM: I did, didn’t I? But it’s too hot in the summer. Maybe Lake Moraine in Canada. Kayaking and hiking during the day and making love all night.

HER: I can tell you’ve never given this much thought, Kermit. I can almost guarantee a couple on their honeymoon isn’t going to spend the day kayaking.

PRESENT DAY

The sensuality of this moment, tangledwith Parker,having reached the top and gone over together as one, was a little bit of heaven, full of visceral emotions I couldn’t describe but lay savoring.

The sex with JJ had been good—at least, I’d thought it had been. But with Parker, it felt…holy. That might be blasphemous, even when I wasn’t overly religious, but I couldn’t help thinking it.

Fate.

I’d dangled that word to Parker just like I’d dangled the word cursed, but I’d never really understood it until now. Until he’d been inside me, and we’d become one. Not just physically but in every single molecule of our being.

When we parted, it was almost painful. I almost wept, and I wasn’t sure I could blame it on baby hormones.

As he started moving away, I caught him by the hips and held him close.

His eyes met mine, and in the flicker of the candlelight, what I saw in those depths had my entire soul relaxing.

“I love you,” I said. It wasn’t a whisper. It wasn’t hesitant. It was the simple truth.

“I know,” he said. And I rolled my eyes and smacked his ass. He chuckled, but then his smile disappeared, and the same look returned to his eyes that I’d seen in the chapel. “I love you too. So much that I’m not even sure that’s the right word for it. Love seems too benign. Too underrated.”

My heart swooned even more than it had when I’d seen the romantic setting he’d assembled for me—for us.

His fingers lingered on the knot on my forehead, which was still an ugly mix of colors.

“I’m not sure this was the easy activity the doctor ordered,” he said gently.

He pushed up and away from the bed, and the cool air of the hotel air conditioner wasn’t the only reason I felt cold. I wanted him with me always. How did people survive without their other half joined to them? It felt impossible.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

I watched as he strode toward the tub in front of the windows. His body was a work of art. Cut and defined. Hard and powerful.I could lie here forever watching him and be happy. That was as startling of a thought as the need to keep him close had been, because I usually didn’t like to sit still for long any more than I liked to be smothered.

Parker turned on the tub’s faucet, running his fingers in the water until it met with his approval before adding some liquid from one of the handful of bottles sitting in a tray hanging off the side. As the tub filled, he popped the cork on the champagne and poured it into two glasses. He set those on the tray as well.

Finally, he came back to me and stretched out his hand. “Wife.”

I smiled and let him pull me up. The room spun a bit. It had been a really long day, and I hadn’t had a chance to rest as I had this weekend. But there was no way I’d admit any of that to him, not when he’d gone over and above to make this night special.

Not when I finally had everything I’d ever wanted.