“My family will have to handle this in their own way,” she continued, a flash of pain in her eyes. “But my friends are in full support. Rivers supports you. We won’t be alone in this. You don’t have to be alone in this anymore. You can be you. With me. No more hiding.”
Not alone. Not hiding. With Taryn. The concepts seemed so foreign that he almost couldn’t grasp them and hold them in his mind. Taryn wasn’t just offering herself but her friends, her world, inviting him in, even with all the heavy baggage that came along with him. It was everything he wanted. It was too much.
He closed the gap between them, unable to help himself. He had to touch her. He cupped her face in his palms, an ache deeper than he’d ever felt pinging through him. “Baby, I can’t tell you what that means to me, but don’t do this. You’re too big-hearted. I don’t want you to get hurt in this. You don’t need to save me.”
She smiled then, tears making her eyes shine. “What if I’m saving myself?”
He looked down at her, bewildered. “Taryn…”
“I love you back, Shaw.”
The words hit him like a blow to the head, stunning him and making him feel dizzy. He held on to her, afraid he’d fall, his heart pounding.
“I know we didn’t get that much time together,” she continued. “But I think I knew almost right away. That night I met you outside the bar, I felt something different with you, something I’d never come close to before. Like the universe tapped me on the shoulder and said this one. I think that’s why I refused to give up even when I found out who you were.” She shook her head in his grasp. “And I’m not saying that to put pressure on you or to make you feel like you have to jump into something serious. You said you think you probably love me, but if that’s not for sure, I understand. Either way, I thought you should know how I feel, and I didn’t want you to leave without knowing and—”
She was rambling. And she loved him. And he couldn’t take it anymore. He bent down and did what he’d been wanting to do since he’d seen her sitting on that rock. He kissed her, cutting off her words and giving himself over to the love that was coursing inside him, letting himself feel it fully for the first time. No fine print. No warning labels. He kissed her like a man who’d thought he’d never see his woman again. He poured every ounce of emotion he’d been holding inside since she’d walked out the door two weeks ago into it. And she kissed him back as if she hadn’t been able to bear it either.
She loved him.
She loved him.
She loved him.
Every part of that was a damn miracle.
Eventually, he pulled back and brushed her tears away with his thumbs. She was so beautiful, it almost hurt to look at her. Like staring into the sun. “Baby, there is no think or probably about it. I love you. I love you so much that it’s killing me to think any of this ugliness is gonna touch you.”
She smiled. “You are not ugliness. You are Shaw Miller, the guy I love. You are worth the trouble.”
“Taryn,” he whispered.
She pressed her hands to his chest, her tears still slipping out. “I needed you to know all that first. But that’s not all I’m here to say. Before we take this any further, there’s something else you should know.”
He frowned at the flash of wariness in her eyes. He swiped at her tears. “What is it, baby?”
* * *
Taryn’s throat was trying to close. She’d never been so happy and terrified at the same time. She felt like there was just a pinprick of space to push words through, but she took a breath and straightened her spine. She’d spent the entire three-and-a-half-hour drive down here thinking of what she was going to say to Shaw. But now that the moment was here, she was panicking.
Shaw looked down with concern and pushed her hair away from her face. “Tell me what’s going on. Something with the press?”
She shook her head. Do it. Do it. She’d just given her speech about being tough, but now she felt like she was going to collapse into a pile of useless marshmallow fluff. The campers she’d passed could make a s’more out of her. No. She could do this. She took another breath and met his gaze. “So, before I drove down here, I did a thing.”
His brows lifted. “A thing?”
She stepped back out of his embrace, wanting to give them both breathing room, and pulled her phone out of her skirt pocket with a shaky hand. She pulled up a photo, stared at it for a long moment, and then looked up at him. “Yeah. Turns out the first one was wrong.”
After a steadying breath, she turned the phone to face him, and he took it from her. His eyes scanned the screen, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he examined the photo, and then all expression washed off his face, along with the color in his cheeks.
“Two lines,” he whispered.
Taryn’s heartbeat was louder than the ocean waves, pounding against her temples. “Yeah. Two lines. We must’ve taken the other one too early. I did two more after the one in the photo to confirm. Two lines. Two hearts. And a yes.”
Shaw looked up, a frightened-rabbit look on his face. “Oh God, Taryn. I’m…” He stepped past her and collapsed onto the rock where she’d been sitting. “I’m so sorry. This is…”
Her stomach dropped, his reaction not what she’d been hoping for. She could hear the unspoken words in the empty space. This is…awful, terrible, bad news. “Shaw.”
He set her phone down and put his head in his hands, his hair hiding his face from her. “Jesus, no wonder you tracked me down. I’ll help with whatever you need. I’ll go with you.”