Before the Sunset (Cottonwood Cove, #4)(84)
She didn’t speak either.
She just smiled, and then the tears started falling down her gorgeous face, and she just waved.
I pushed away the lump in my throat. “Hey, Miney.”
She nodded and swiped at her cheeks and then started laughing. “I don’t know why I’m crying. I’m just really happy to see you.”
“Yeah? I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s been tortured by this crazy plan of yours.”
She smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re not the only one.”
“Did you just go for a ride?” I asked, feeling an unexplainable peace come over me now that I was looking at her.
“Not yet. I was waiting to see if you called first.”
“You call, I come, right? Works the same way with the phone. You ask, I’ll call. Every fucking time. I’ll always show up, Reese.”
“I know you will. I was wrong to worry that you didn’t know what you wanted. I’m far from a relationship expert. I just had all these fears that you would feel obligated to me because this all started off not being real. So, I worried that once you left, you’d realize this wasn’t for you.” Pops of gold and honey danced in her green eyes as the sun shone in through the barn doors.
“I think it was always real for me, if I’m being honest. From that first time I kissed you, something shifted in me.”
“What shifted?” She smiled.
“I actually think that you insisting we take this time to figure things out was not the worst idea. It gave me a lot of time to think. And I realized that I’ve never enjoyed being with any woman the way I enjoy being with you. I’m pretty sure that the reason I never dated anyone seriously is because my heart already belonged to you. I just didn’t know it at the time. So, you dated Carl for years, and I did what I did during that time. But from the minute my lips crashed into yours, I knew I was done for, Miney. You own me. I don’t want anyone else. I don’t think about anyone else. And it doesn’t matter if I’m thousands of miles away or in bed beside you. You are all that I want.”
She nodded as the tears fell, running down her cheeks.
“You are all that I want, too.”
“Are you sure about that? Do you want to tell me why you didn’t mention that you were meeting with Carl? Is there something going on there that I should know about?”
She shook her head. “There is nothing going on there. I wouldn’t lie to you, Chewy, you know that. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, and I promise to tell you why I met him when I see you. Can you trust me on that?”
“Of course, I can. If you tell me there’s nothing to worry about there, then that’s all I need to hear. But that goes both ways. I’m telling you that you have nothing to worry about, so you need to trust that.”
“I’m not a Hollywood movie star,” she said, and her voice was all tease.
“You’re everything, Miney.”
Her eyes widened, and she tilted her head to the side. “So are you, Finn Reynolds.”
“Well, it looks like we’re finally on the same page. And now we’ve got to wait ten more days until I get to see you.”
“Ten days. We’ve got this. You probably need to get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”
“How about you do me a favor?” I asked, my voice heavy in desperate need of sleep, yet I wasn’t ready to hang up with her.
“Anything.”
“Take me on a ride down to the water.”
She chuckled and pushed to her feet. “That’s easy enough. I’ve missed our rides.”
“I’ve missed them, too.”
“Take me to the last place I was buried inside you, and you rode me with that white cowboy hat on your head and nothing else. Tits bouncing, lips parted,” I said, and she gasped before holding her finger to her lips. “Good morning, Silas. I’m just chatting with Finn in Tokyo.”
“I can see that,” the man said as he barked out a laugh. “Your girl is three shades of red, Reynolds.”
“Didn’t know we had an audience,” I said as I waggled my brows at Reese through the phone.
“Okay, give me a minute to get saddled up,” she said, and I was fairly certain she tucked the phone into her cleavage, and I groaned. The phone moved, and she faced it out as she started trotting through the grassy field toward the pines and the water.
“Sorry about that,” I said over my laughter when she turned the phone to face her.
“That’s okay, you big perv. We’re alone now. Tell me all the things you miss.”
And that was exactly what I did.
We laughed, and we talked, and she sat on the beach with me until my eyes grew heavy, then we said our goodbyes.
And I fell asleep dreaming of home.
Dreaming of Reese.
One month away had felt like an eternity. But I’d continued sending texts all day long, finding photos that I knew she would love and sending her gifts that would make her smile at least once a day.
But we’d spent the last ten days FaceTiming when I’d get off work. It had helped to see her beautiful face those last days we’d been apart, but nothing would compare to holding her in my arms.
Hell, I hadn’t had sex in a month, and I was horny as all get-out, but I didn’t even care about that at the moment. I just wanted her with me. Near me.