Unexpected Chances

* * *

A dog? Kids? “Home?” Holly asked, stunned.

She blinked and glanced around. The land looked the same as much of the landscape she’d passed while driving out here. A beautiful white landscape covered in snow and ice while the sun shone overhead.

“I own it, or I will once the contract is signed. Actually—” He paused, obviously uncomfortable.

Her heart thudded so loud she was surprised he couldn’t hear. He’d bought land here?

“Actually what?” Her voice cracked, she was so afraid of what came next. It was ridiculous being afraid of happiness, but it had been so long since she’d dared to hope or dream.

“Actually, I want us to own it. You and me.” He grabbed on to her hands and held them in front of her. “I want to live here and raise our kids here.”

“What about L.A.? Your life? Your career?”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve thought this through, you know. This wasn’t an impulse buy. I want you to take some time off and come with me to L.A., so you can see my life and friends for yourself. I want you to be a part of everything that I do.”

She swallowed hard, daring to believe. Meeting him here had been the first step. Now she listened with an open heart as well as an open mind. “Go on.”

“Then we come back here to live. I’ll leave only for movie shoots and, honest to God, I’d planned on cutting back. Doing only what appeals to me creatively because financially I’m already set for life. I’ll be here with you as often as I can, and you’ll come to me when you can take the time. We can make this work. You just need to believe.”

Tears dripped down her cheeks, practically turning to ice before they fell. She grasped his face in her hands and looked into his gorgeous blue eyes.

“You have no idea what your leaving the first time did to me. I withdrew, Dylan. I didn’t get involved with another man who I thought could hurt me the way you did.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he listened and replied. “I’m not sure I like where this is headed.”

“Shh.” She placed her finger over his lips. “You need to hear this as much as I need to say it.”

He nodded slowly.

“But I also realize, now, that there isn’t another man who could hurt me that way because there’s no one I could ever love the way I love you.”

He sucked in a deep breath, and when he released it, a puff of white hovered in the air. “I love you, too. I never stopped, not even after I left.”

“I know that now.”

He brushed at her tears. “We were so young, and I was so stupid.”

She shook her head. “We needed to follow the paths we did. It made us who we are.”

“And who are we?” he asked.

“Two people who found their way back to each other.” She laughed. “Or rather, you found me again. Either way I’m not stupid enough to turn you away.” She pulled him into a long, deep kiss, savoring the warmth of his mouth and how he devoured her, as if he could never get enough.

She knew she’d never get enough of him.

Too soon, he pulled back. “You realize there’ll be times I’m gone for weeks, maybe months at a time?”

She nodded.

“And you need to trust that while I’m gone, I’m still with you in here.” He patted the place above his heart. “You have to know I’ll be back, and you need to remember there’s no one else but you.” His deep gaze never left hers. “No matter what you see, hear or read. Can you do that?”

She nodded again. “Dylan, I love you. It’s always been you. And not only do I trust you with my heart, I trust you to remind me not to be an idiot if those old insecurities ever arise.” Because she was only human and understood she couldn’t promise not to be.

Dylan met her gaze, and in her eyes, he saw everything he was, everything he desired and everything he wanted to be. “Babe, I can do that. I can do anything as long as I have you. And that angel I gave back to you? It was because I want it to top our tree. Because you’re my Midnight Angel.”

She grinned and planted a kiss on his lips. One that was warm, hot, giving and went on and on and on….