MAGGIE
He loved me.
Everything he said was more . . . It was what I needed. The sadness and ache that had taken up permanent residence in my heart were lifted. West Ashby loved me. I wasn’t just someone he needed to get through his loss. I was more than that.
“Wait,” I called. He’d walked off behind me, and I turned around to see he’d only gotten halfway down the hall. He stopped, and for a second I wasn’t sure he was going to look at me. When he finally did, his eyes held hope. So much hope I could see it from where I stood.
I called out to him again. “I didn’t want you to wake up one day and not need me anymore. I wouldn’t have been able to survive that kind of heartbreak. I wanted more. I fell in love with you, and it terrified me.”
He started walking back to me, his long strides determined as he kept his eyes locked on mine. When he reached me, he cupped my face in his hands and stared down at me. “Thank God,” he said fiercely before his lips covered mine.
I clung to his shoulders as happy tears slid down my cheeks. His thumbs brushed them away as our tongues collided and we held on to each other as if it were the last time.
“You’re not real good with the giving-her-space thing, are you?” Brady’s voice startled me, and I pulled back and glanced over West’s shoulder to see my cousin looking more amused than anything.
West grinned, then pressed a kiss to the tip of my nose before sliding his arm around me and turning to look at Brady. “Apparently not,” he drawled as he smirked at my cousin.
Brady laughed and shook his head. “As long as she’s happy,” he replied. Then his gaze met mine. He was looking for an affirmation from me.
“I’m very happy,” I assured him.
He nodded then moved his gaze back to West. “Show me that you deserve her.”
West’s arm tightened around me. “I will.”
“Good. Because I can’t go kick Raleigh’s ass, but I can kick yours.”
This time it was me who laughed.
Tonight I had a date with West. A real date. The kind a couple goes on. The kind we’d never really had before.
It was only slightly awkward when Uncle Boone asked West where we were going and reminded him to take good care of me. I think I preferred sneaking out of my window to that. West didn’t seem bothered by it, though; he seemed pleased more than anything.
As we drove down the road, he patted the seat beside me. “Scoot over here.”
I did as I was told and happily moved to sit as close to West as possible.
“You haven’t asked where we’re going,” he said as he put his hand on my leg.
“Because I don’t care as long as I’m with you.”
He grinned and squeezed my thigh. “I know that feeling.” I laid my head on his shoulder. “So, tell me where we’re going.”
“Well, I had several ideas, but none of them seemed special enough for our official first date.”
That didn’t answer my question. Not that I really cared, but I was getting curious now. “That tells me nothing.”
He chuckled. “No, I guess it doesn’t.”
He was teasing me. “Why do I feel like I got tricked into this conversation without knowing it?”
West kissed my head. “I’ve decided telling you doesn’t make it sound as good as it actually is.”
When he turned to head down a road that led to the field party, I sat up and watched. There weren’t any field parties tonight. What was he doing?
“Are we going to the field?” I asked.
He didn’t respond. A small grin tugged on his mouth, but that was all I got.
So I waited.
Sure enough, West pulled his truck into the empty clearing and cut the engine. He stared straight ahead for a moment then finally turned to me.
“It was here I saw you for the first time. I thought you were beautiful. Might as well know that. You had me with just one glance. But I had left my mom at home with my sick dad, and I was worried. I felt guilty because I was here. I was angry because I couldn’t just be here and enjoy it. My dad was slipping away from me, and I was terrified.” He paused and reached for my hand. “That night I was broken and close to shattering. The pain was becoming unbearable, and I had no one. . . . Then there was you.”
I felt my eyes sting from unshed tears. Thinking over the past month since the first time I’d met him, so much had happened. His pain may have been what had drawn us together, but I would take it away in a second if I could. Even if it meant not having this with him now.
“I took what I wanted that night. You were a distraction at first. You were this gorgeous, silent girl who hid in the shadows. I wanted to lose myself in you. And for a brief moment I did just that. The taste of your lips was sweeter than anything I’d ever experienced. For a second I forgot my pain. My fears. My anger. And I just enjoyed being with you.” He picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles before turning it over and kissing my palm. “I had no idea how precious you were. No idea that I’d just found the one to stand by me, to hold on to me and to help me learn to heal. I’m so thankful you opened up to me and spoke. When I think about not having you, it hurts. I couldn’t have faced what I’ve faced without you.”
A tear slipped free, and West moved his hand to catch it with his finger. “You became the most important part of my life. I don’t want you to ever question that. And I’d like to do-over the first night we met,” he said with a grin.
Do-over?
“What?” I asked, confused, as he opened the truck door.
He stepped down then, turned around, and got my hand to pull me to him. “I want a do-over,” he repeated, then winked at me. “In order to do this right, I need you to go stand over by that tree and look like your usual breathtaking self. Once you’re in place, we are repeating the events of that night. But instead of me being hurt and angry, I’m going to be the guy you needed. The one you healed. I’m going to sweep you off your feet so fast, you won’t know what hit you.”
This time I laughed as another tear slipped free. I nodded and walked over to the tree where I had gotten my first kiss. That night I had been so lonely until West had shown up. He’d brightened my world, and he didn’t even realize it. He thought he needed to do it over.
I disagreed. But I went along with it.
West gave me a thumbs-up when I was standing exactly where he’d seen me that first night. As he walked over just like he’d done then, I wanted to giggle. It seemed silly, but it was sweet. I’d give him that.
“Why are you out here all alone? The party’s in there.” He nodded toward the clearing in the woods.
I bit back my grin. “Am I supposed to talk or be silent? I wasn’t talking back then,” I said quietly, trying to keep a straight face.
West cocked an eyebrow at me and lowered his head until his lips were very close to mine. “You’re not very good at do-overs, are you?” he asked me.
I giggled. “You didn’t make that part clear!”
He kissed the corner of my mouth. “Let’s just get to the good part. I excel at this scene,” he whispered, then covered my mouth with his.
That first night I’d been so unsure. So much had changed since then. I knew exactly what to do now. I slid my hands up his arms, loving the way they flexed under my touch, before holding on to his shoulders.
Our tongues danced and teased while West’s hands moved just under the bottom of my shirt and brushed against my skin. That definitely hadn’t happened that night. But tonight I wanted it to. I lifted my hands higher and locked them around his neck, making my shirt rise and tempting West to touch more.
He did.
Both his hands moved up and cupped my breasts as a small cry that I couldn’t help escaped me. I loved his hands on me and the way they made me feel.
Too suddenly he pulled back. “If I’d done this that night I would have expected you to knee me in the balls,” he said, breathing hard.
“I probably would have fainted.”
He kept his hands on me and brushed his thumb over my nipples through the satin of my bra. I shivered and squirmed, trying to get more.
“We aren’t ready for this part of our night. I have a plan,” he said, his eyes full of the same arousal I was feeling.
“I thought this was your plan,” I said, closing my eyes as he moved his fingertips just inside the satin of my bra. “No, but it is a helluva lot better.”
