Page 59 of Rescued By the Mountain Man Cowboy
"Like what?"
"Like I already left."
That punches the wind out of me.
I cross the kitchen in two steps. I take her face in my hands. Her cheeks are warm. Her hands come up to grip my wrists.
"Anna."
"Just tell me. If you want me to go, tell me. I'll go. I'll figure it out. I'm not gonna make a thing of it. I just don't want to sit here all night wondering if you're gonna ask me to or if I'm gonna have to ask first and…"
"Anna. Breathe."
"I can't."
I press my forehead to hers. "I'm not mad. I'm…hell. I'm trying to figure out how to be a man about this. That's all."
"About what?"
"About letting you go."
She makes a small sound. Her grip on my wrists tightens.
"Luke."
"Anna. Look at me."
She tips her chin. Eyes wet now. Mouth set.
"You are twenty-six years old. You got an apartment in Portland. A career. A life. You got a mama in Connecticut who's gonna want to ensure you are truly okay and feed you for a month. Your friends, your routines, your whole world, it's allup there. Not here." My thumb brushes her cheekbone. The smudge's still there. I leave it. "I'm not gonna be the man who looked at a woman with her whole life ahead of her and asked her to throw it in for a cabin in the middle of nowhere and a guy twelve years older than her who doesn't know how to ask for what he wants."
"Luke."
"Let me finish."
She closes her mouth.
"I fell for you, Brown Eyes."
Her breath catches.
"I fell for you so hard I'm gonna be picking myself up off the ground for a year after you go. I fell for you the morning I made you coffee on this porch and you called me a deeply unhelpful man. I fell for you in a hunter's lean-to in the rain. I fell for you last night when you let me hold you. I fell for you this morning when you took me down to my knees on my own goddamn floor."
"Oh my God."
"I have known you nine days. I am thirty-eight years old. I know what love feels like. I have not fallen for anyone in fifteen years and you walked into Gabe's office and you wrecked me."
"Luke."
"I'm not gonna ask you to stay."
Her eyes spill.
"I'm not. Because if you stay, I want it to be because you wanted to. Not because I asked. Not because you felt bad. Not because I'm a man who's good at telling a woman what to do and you got soft about it. I want to be yours. But I want it to be your choice."
She blinks hard. A tear slides down. I catch it with my thumb. Then another. Then I just hold her face and let her cry.
"You done?" she whispers.
