Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 76592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
This kiss is slower. Deeper. A surrender. He traces my tongue with his. I slide my hands over his muscular arms, the familiar planes of his back. He groans softly, low and rough, the sound vibrating through both of us.
Somewhere far away, a car door slams, a dog barks, the world keeps turning. But in this moment, it doesn’t matter. The air is thick with the kind of hunger that doesn’t feel like lust.
It feels like recognition. Like coming home.
When he finally pulls away, I’m trembling.
“Tabitha,” he whispers, my name breaking apart in his mouth.
And for the first time since leaving the cabin, I let myself stop pretending I ever stopped wanting him.
“You’re hard to surprise, you know that?”
“I’m surprised.”
He traces a thumb over my jaw. “Good.”
“But I do wish you had called, Henry. I mean, after everything at the cabin, all our talks…”
“I should have,” he says. “But I had some things to take care of. Big things.”
“Too big that you couldn’t make time for a little phone call?”
“I didn’t want to jinx it.”
“Jinx what?”
He exhales slowly. “The fact that I’m staying.”
I blink. “What?”
He slips his hands into his pockets. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said. About not making it a choice between us and your career. So I did something about it.”
“Henry—”
“I talked to Brad and the foundation board,” he continues. “We’re opening a satellite office here in Boulder. Outreach and mental health programs for med students and veterans. I’ll head it up.”
I just stare at him. “You’re…moving here?”
“Zach and me, yeah.” He grins. “We found a place near the foothills. Nothing fancy, but it’s got enough space for both of us. For all of us, if you—” He stops himself, jaw tightening. “If you wanted.”
My throat closes up. “Henry, your house on the Slope—”
“Nearly killed me,” he says simply. “When the renovations are done, I’ll see if Angie wants it as a second home for her and Jason. Or maybe Sage. She doesn’t have her own place yet. But I’m ready to move on.”
I can’t speak. I just stand there, heart pounding, trying to catch up to what he’s saying.
He strokes my cheek. “I’m not whole yet,” he says quietly. “But the one thing I’m certain of is that I want you at my side while I’m healing. I don’t want to go through it alone. And I don’t want you to go through your own hell alone.”
“Are you serious?” I whisper.
“As a gunshot.”
I laugh, even though my eyes are stinging. “That’s dark.”
“That’s us.”
Is this truly happening? Henry is here? For good? For me?
“Say something,” he murmurs.
I do the only thing that makes sense. I grab his collar and pull him down to me.
This time the kiss is familiar. Like home.
Around us, people come and go, another car door slams, someone laughs.
But all that matters is Henry. And me.
Us.
When I finally pull back, he’s smiling.
“Move in with me,” he says.
“What?”
He brushes a strand of hair from my face. “No speeches. No ‘let’s wait and see.’ Just move in. We’ll figure out the rest.”
“Henry—”
“Look,” he says softly, “I know it’s fast, but it doesn’t feel fast to me. It feels like we’ve been circling this for years.”
I look up at him, at the man who’s still rebuilding his life and choosing to walk back into mine. “You really opened an office here?”
“Signed the lease yesterday.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” His blue eyes sparkle. “You’re not the only one who can make impossible things happen, Miss Surgical Seminar.”
I shake my head, laughing through tears. “You’re insane.”
“Comes with the territory,” he says. “But it’s manageable with the right medication.”
I snort. “You’re also impossible.”
He wraps his arms around my waist. “And I’m all yours.”
God help me, that’s all it takes.
He kisses me again, slower this time, deeper. When he pulls back, he traces my jaw with his thumb. “So what do you say, Doctor-to-be? Want to give the big bad rancher a chance at city life?”
I glance past him at the truck and then at Zach sitting on the sidewalk. A wave of emotion rises so strong I can barely breathe. “Yeah,” I whisper. “Yeah, I do.”
“Good,” he says, grin flashing. “Because Zach already picked out your spot on the couch.”
“You let the dog decide?”
“He’s got better instincts than I do.” He hesitates. “Most of the time.”
I laugh again, and I feel like the world just opened up.
He takes my hand and kisses the inside of my wrist. “Come on. I’ll show you the place.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
The drive is short but beautiful through the foothills, cottonwoods flashing gold in the sun. The air smells like dust and pine. Zach rides in the back, head out the window, tongue wagging.
When we pull into a gravel driveway bordered by wildflowers, I stop breathing again.
The house is perfect. It’s a two-story with a wraparound porch and paint that still smells new. Wind chimes tangle in the breeze, scattering faint music. The mountains rise behind it, so beautiful and majestic.