Page 26 of A Very Grumpy Sheriff
She glances over at me, and her blush deepens.“You know it was.”
“I like hearing you say it.”
That gets me another tiny smile.Then she looks away again.
“It was amazing,” she repeats softly.“You were amazing.Everything was… perfect.”
“But?”
Her fingers twist in the sheet.“But I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
I go still.“What shoe?”
She lets out a shaky laugh.“That’s the thing.I don’t even know.I guess I keep waiting for you to realize this was all too much.That maybe you built me up in your head because of the letters and now that I’m actually here, I won’t be what you imagined.”
My jaw clenches so hard that it aches.“Suri?—”
“Maybe you’ll remember I’m just some girl from high school who had a crush on you.Or maybe this is all happening fast because we had all those years of letters, but real life is different and?—”
I move before she can finish.
In one second, I’m over her, braced on my forearms, my body covering hers.She gasps, and her eyes fly to mine.
“Stop,” I growl.
Her lips part in shock.
“Stop talking about yourself like that.”
“I’m not?—”
“You are.”My voice is rougher than I intended, but I can’t soften it.Not with her lying beneath me, looking uncertain about the one thing I’ve never been more sure of in my life.“You are not just some girl from high school.You are not a fantasy I made up.You are not replaceable.You are not temporary.”
Her throat works.
“You’re Suri,” I say, lowering my forehead to hers.“You’re the woman who wrote to me when I was alone.You’re the woman who kept showing up for me when no one else ever did.You’re the woman I fell in love with before I knew your face, and when I saw your face, I just fell harder.”
Her eyes shimmer.“I’m still scared,” she whispers.
Something inside me breaks open, and I do the only thing I can think of.
I kiss her.
Not hard.Not the way I want to.I kiss her softly, carefully, pouring every bit of promise I have into it.She melts beneath me, her hands lifting to my shoulders.
When I pull back, her lips chase mine.
“Nothing is dropping,” I tell her.“No shoe.No bomb.No bad ending.Not with us.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“The hell I can’t.”
Her eyes narrow a little.“Devon.”
“I can’t promise we’ll never have bad days.I can’t promise we’ll never fight.I can’t promise life won’t be messy.”I brush her hair back from her face.“But I can promise that I’m not going anywhere.I can promise that I’ll choose you every damn day.I can promise that if you get scared, I’ll be right here reminding you until you believe me.”
A tear slips down her temple.
