Second Chance Summer

Aidan hadn’t had it easy in the past few months. Jacob was still out there, injured and hopefully recovering, but he’d made no contact with his brothers, which was pretty much killing them. As for the resort, there’d been no magic solution to save it, but none of them had given up that fight. They still had nine months. The toll of that worry was dragging on him, on all of them, but she liked to think that she helped him. “And you, Aidan? You okay?”

He lowered his head and kissed her. Not softly. They were both breathing unevenly when he pulled back and met her gaze. “Depends.”

“On what?” she wanted to know.

“What happens next. With us.”

Her breath caught. “What do you want to happen next?”

“Me? That’s easy. I want to fall asleep with you at night and wake up wrapped up in you in the mornings.” He smiled and lifted a shoulder. “Anything else is just icing, babe. A ring. A white picket fence. Babies. Whatever you want.”

She stared at him. “Whatever I want? You can’t just offer me whatever I want.”

“Of course I can.” His eyes were intense now. Serious, smile gone. “Just name it.”

“There’s really only one thing,” she said.

He waited with characteristic patience.

“I just need you to love me,” she whispered.

“For the rest of my life,” he promised.