She starts to ramble, letting me know that she's nervous. "Yeah. I'm going to sell the house anyway. I've never liked living here, and I don't want to stay. I may try to find something smaller." She's walking through the house, and I follow behind her.
I did a good job of cleaning everything up. "What can I do to help?"
She won't look at me, and she's trying to keep herself busy. "You've helped enough."
I can tell by the way her voice sounds that she’s about to cry. I put my hand on her shoulder and turn her toward me. "Allison, what is it? I'm sorry. Did I do something wrong? I thought you wanted to be home."
She wipes at her tears and looks at me with big wide eyes. "What are you going to do, Kane? Leave here and just walk away?"
It kills me to even say it, but I answer her honestly. "Yes."
Sadness and anger fill her face. "Okay. Okay. I... Yeah. Okay. I didn't realize that sex was all there was between us. I had hoped... Forget it." She stops.
She starts to walk away from me, but I jog to catch up and stop in front of her. "You hoped what?"
"Nothing. It doesn't matter. Please excuse me if I don't walk you out."
She takes off in the opposite direction, running up the stairs. I pace back and forth, trying to figure out what I've done wrong, how I've messed this so far up. With determination, I walk up the stairs. I look in each of the bedrooms and find her curled up on her side in one of the spare rooms. I sit on the edge of the bed at her knees. "I'm building a house," I tell her. "It's on the back of the property line behind the clubhouse. It'll be months before it's ready. I almost took you there this week. I wanted to. I wanted to see what you thought about it. I wanted to ask you if you thought that you could be happy there." I put my hand on her hip. I've never been this vulnerable before, even when I was cornered in a rain of fire in the military. I could see the light in the tunnel. Right now, everything looks bleak.
She raises up on her elbow and looks at me. "Why didn't you?"
When I don't answer her, she puts her legs out and sits up on the bed next to me. "Why?" I look around the fancy room and back of her. "Look at this place, Allison. I can't compete with this. You deserve this life."
She interrupts me, throwing her hand in the air. "What? You think I deserve an empty house with no love, no kids, no laughter? You think I deserve to be lonely, afraid, and sad? Because that’s everything I felt before I met you."
I shake my head. "You know what I mean."
She pulls at the fancy blanket on the bed. "I don't care about any of this. This last week with you, I felt more alive than I ever have. I am happy with you, Kane."
"So am I," I tell her. "I didn't want to let myself even think we could be a possibility, but I can't walk out that door without you."
I reach for her just as she reaches for me. Her arms go around my neck, and she holds on to me. "So are you asking me to come home with you?"
"We'll have to live at the clubhouse for a while," I warn her.
She smiles. "I don't care."
"I'll probably fuck up, but you can't give up on me," I warn her.
She leans toward me and hugs me tightly before pulling back. "If we're going to put it all out there, then I should probably tell you, I hung out all day with Brandy and little DJ today."
I shrug, not understanding what she's saying. "Okay."
She cups my face. "I have baby fever."
I swallow, knowing that I have no qualms about spending the rest of my life with her or having babies with her. Fuck, it’s like a dream come true. She's it for me. I whisper to her, "I should probably tell you then I love you, Allison. I want a life with you. I want to have babies with you."
Before I get it all out, I'm pressing my lips to hers, unable to hold back the kiss any longer. She completes me like no one ever has, and I was stupid to think that I could let her go. When the kiss gets heavy, she pulls back from me. "Let's grab some of my stuff because I'm ready to go home."
I pick her up and spin her around in my arms. "That's good, honey, because I'm ready to take you home."
Epilogue
Kane
Six Months Later
As I pull into the driveway, all I can think is that I’m ready to be home. I just got back into Whiskey Run from a mission that took me out of the country. I even skipped out on the debriefing that Walker usually requires after any mission.