Page 86 of The Offer

They weaved through the trees slowly, turning every corner, looking around every rock. Jess kept sneaking glances at Kevin yards away, his face twisted tightly with worry and determination. He was soaked from the rain, his flip-flops squishing underneath him.

The complete opposite, Jess thought. She hated herself for the words she said to him in New York. She needed to tell him—needed to fix it.

Fifteen minutes later, she saw that face soften with relief. He bent over and scooped up a very wet, shaking Honey. The puppy burrowed into his arm and whimpered.

Jess sobbed as she ran up to them, nuzzling her face in Honey’s drenched fur. She peered up at Kevin, noticing he too was openly sobbing, his cheeks crimson, his hair clinging to his forehead and grazing his eyes. She lifted a hand and slicked his hair back on instinct, then brushed her palm against his cheek.

“I’m so sorry,” she wept. “I said awful things. You didn’t deserve that. You are nothing like him.”

His forehead creased as he squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re right. I don’t deserve it. You keep pushing me away.”

She dropped her hand and stepped back, watching as he slowly blinked his eyes open.

Lightning cut across the sky. Honey dug her snout in the crease between his arm and his chest. He gripped her tight as he took a tentative step toward Jess, then paused, reeling back.

“Jess…I’ve had a crush on you since that day we met in tenth grade biology,” Kevin admitted. “But this summer? This summer I fell in love with you. I am so head over heels that it scares me. I need you like I need air, and every time we’re apart I feel like I’m cleaving myself in two.”

He wiped at his tears with his free hand. “I know I don’t deserve how you’ve been treating me, but I can’t stop coming to you. I can’t seem to control myself. Because I want you to be my home, Jess. I want to be wherever you are, always.”

She closed the distance between them, balling his wet sweatshirt in her hands and pulling him close. “I don’t want to push you away anymore. I want you to be my home, too.”

Jess waited patiently and listened to his ragged breathing, feeling the beat of his heart pounding in his chest. Then, in one swift movement, he laced his free arm around her waist and pressed in. He pushed her lips open with his and slipped a tongue in her mouth as he guided her back and pressed her against a tree, the pressure of the bark on her back igniting something deep inside her belly. Her hands roamed down his chest and hugged at his waist. She slipped them inside the back of his sweatshirt and dug her nails into his skin. He moved his hand from her waist and pressed it on her ribcage below her breast, extracting a moan from her mouth the same moment thunder rumbled above them.

Honey squirmed in his other arm from the sound.

Kevin parted his lips from hers, his breathing heavy. “Jess, I don’t want to drop her.”

She nipped at his lip, sucking on it gently before responding. “Stay the night.”

His eyes brightened. “In your bed?”

She nodded. “Yes. Don’t go. Please.”

He grinned, planting one last lingering kiss before pressing his forehead to hers. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Gram welcomed them back to the cottage with warm towels and cookies. Jess sat down on the floor and bundled Honey up in a towel, patting her dry. She yelped and jumped out of her grasp, shaking violently and scattering water droplets across the floor.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Kevin teased, wiping up the water as Honey tottered over to her fluffy dog bed. She plopped down with a defeated thump, then closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Gram yawned as Kevin stepped into the bathroom. “I’m glad you found her.”

Jess, still sitting on the floor, squeezed her wet hair with a towel.

Gram leaned down and pressed a soft, wrinkly hand to her cheek. “Do you believe me now?”

Jess frowned. “Believe what?”

“That everything will be okay?”

Kevin opened the bathroom door, his gaze full of longing and love and delicious heat.

She glanced up at Gram and nodded. “Yeah, I believe you now.”

Gram patted her cheek then scurried up the stairs, escaping into her room.

Kevin held out his hands to Jess and helped her up, wrapping her in his arms before kissing her deeply. A hand roamed down the small of her back as he cupped a cheek and squeezed.

She giggled. “You really like my butt, don’t you?”