“Shit!” I said, helping to lift Waylynn off of me. “Are you okay?”
“Is he gone?”
I laughed. “Yes, he’s gone. Why didn’t you try to get up?”
Rolling onto her side, her entire body was soaking wet, and the shower was still running.
“If I had moved and looked him in the face, I would have combusted into flames and died from embarrassment.” Her hands covered her face, and she started laughing hysterically. I couldn’t help but join in as I crawled to the shower and turned it off. We must have laughed for ten minutes before we came to our senses.
Reaching for two towels, I wrapped one around me and handed the other to Waylynn. We sat up against opposite walls in the bathroom.
I chuckled and said, “This is something to tell the kids someday.”
Her smile grew bigger. “Do you think we’re moving too fast? I mean, we’re living together. We’ve told each other I love you. You asked me to marry you, and we’re sitting in a soaked bathroom after my father just saw you naked and me face planted into your twig and berries…and now we are talking kids. Are you sure about this?”
I shook my head. “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life. I knew the moment I first saw you I wanted to make you my forever. I’m unapologetically in love with you, Waylynn, and I don’t care who thinks it’s too fast or it’s wrong. I know it’s right.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “I’ve never felt this way before.”
“Not with Jack?” I asked, knowing I needed to hear her response for my own peace of mind.
“Not even with him. This feels much deeper. More meaningful, if that makes any sense. Jack swept me off my feet and promised me the moon and stars. You’ve captured my heart with your touch, your kiss, and the sweet words you whisper in my ear when you make love to me. I realize now that the lifestyle in New York was just for show, his ‘love’ for me never compared to what you and I have. It’s so much more and I know now that it was meant to be.”
“What was meant to be?”
“Us. My dream of starting a family, but not with Jack. I can only imagine doing that with you, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that sort of blows my mind, because we’ve only just started dating!”
“Well, if you think about it, we’ve been flirting for a lot longer, so the attraction was certainly there.”
She grinned. “So, is this sort of a love at first sight type of thing?”
“Before my father passed, he told me the moment he saw my mother he knew she was the one. It was at a football game, and he looked up into the stands of the opposing team and saw an angel sitting there. He went over to the sidelines and started asking the football players who she was. After the game, instead of running into the lockers, he ran into the bleachers and begged for her number.”
Waylynn tucked her knees into her chest and rested her chin. “Did she give it to him?”
“Yes. They went out on a date to the drive-in movies in Uvalde the next night. That’s where my mom was from, originally. He’d always told us that she was his forever love from that first smile. They got married the day after they graduated. Two months after they met.”
“Wow! How romantic.”
I nodded. “My father loved my mother so much. You saw it in the way he looked at her when she walked into a room. Or when he was leaving to work the fields, the way he would kiss her goodbye. It was magical. That’s why Mom told Rip that he was sharing her heart, because a love like that doesn’t disappear. I know that sounds corny.”
“I don’t think it does at all. I love that you noticed their love like that.”
“That’s the way I feel about you. I can’t imagine my life without you, and to hell with anyone who thinks we’re moving too fast or that our age gap makes a difference. I love you, Waylynn, and I don’t plan on stopping.”
Standing, she reached down for my hand, pulling me up. “We better get ready to head on over to your folks’ place. It was too nice of them to do dinner this year instead of lunch so that we could be at my folks’ place this morning.”
I wrapped her up in my arms. “Mom didn’t mind at all. She adores you.” I kissed Waylynn gently on the lips before leading her into her bedroom.
With a wink, I added, “I think we’ve got a few minutes to spare.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Waylynn
“Are you nervous?”
Glancing up from my desk, I smiled at Aunt Vi standing there with a large basket.