I gasp at his words, and I’m sure I can feel his heart thudding against my back, hammering just as frantically as mine. It’s hard to know, with all the shivering inside of me, the wind rushing at my face, the world passing below us as we get closer, and the ground seems to rush faster.
“I want everything with you.” He’s shouting the words as if he wants the world to know. Like he never wants to be ashamed of it. “I want a family. A marriage. An entire life. I knew it the second you walked into my office.”
He wraps his arms around me from behind. My eyes fill with tears, and I try to turn to look at him, but the angle of our harnesses makes it impossible.
I squeeze onto his forearms, onto his security, his closeness.
“I want everything,” I try to shout, but my voice cracks, and the words come out shaky.
“What?” he says loudly.
“Everything,” I yell, pushing past the tears. “I want it all. I want you. All of you. All ofus. Kids, a family. All of it!”
“All of it,” he repeats, his voice cracking with emotion. “I need to land us. I need to kiss you.”
Tears slide horizontally across my face as the wind streams faster against me. Visions of Dad try to intrude, but like the terrible daughter I clearly am, I push them away.
“Say it again,” I yell as the ground rushes closer to us.
“I want you,” he replies. “All of you. Now tuck your legs.”
I tuck as Silas explained to me before we were harnessed together. He lands us in the middle of a field, gently sitting back, so I naturally fall against him.
We stay like that for a moment, and then his hand darts into action, going for the clip on my right shoulder, the same moment mine does. We laugh as our hands collide, then he grabs it and unclips us.
I undo the clips on the other side, heavily breathing as I fall away, then roll and face him.
We move across the tangled parachute to find each other, my hands clawing against his jumpsuit as I pull my face closer to his.
He kisses me hard, his hand squeezing against my hip, pulling us even closer together.
Our tongues clash hotly, hinting at the pleasure we could share if we went all the way.
“Do you really want it too?” he says, his lips near mine as if he’s getting ready to kiss me again any moment.
Everymoment.
For now, we’re alone, just us and the scent of grass and the blue sky. No Dad or Mom or Jimmy or anybody to interfere, to ruin…to judge, rightfully so, that what we’re doing is a betrayal.
But notnow.
“Lauren,” he says, tone urgent, as if he could ever think I’d change my mind.
“Yes. I never thought you’d feel the same…aboutme.”
“I told you I never dated. I told you I wanted kids but was waiting for the right woman.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “Are you saying I should’ve guessed my crush would want me forreal?”
“What about the woman of my dreams? I should’ve guessed, huh?” He grins, tickling my side. “Especially with all that talk about dating apps.”
“I’d never join one of those things. I guess I wanted to see if you cared.”
“I do. A lot.”
He kisses me again. We lose ourselves in each other, and then his phone beeps loudly.
“What’s that?” I ask, thinkingDad, an emergency, something terrible happening while we’re here.