Method

“You have?” His Adam’s apple bobs. “Okay.”

“I’m going to be a sommelier. I’m going to grow my own vines and make wine.”

He pushes out a relieved breath. “I love your plan.”

“I’m also going to take advice from a grasshopper and take life a little less seriously before summer runs out.”

“It’s good advice.”

“I loved that grasshopper,” I say as his face falls, “I really did.”

“I know,” he speaks up, his voice overcome with emotion. “God, look at you.” The admiration in his eyes steals my breath. “You’re so fucking beautiful, you’re all I’ve ever wanted. You and that baby you carry, that’s what I want, to have a family. With you I have all of it. You hold all of my hope, Mila. All of it. I can’t lose you—”

“You haven’t,” I say, dropping the flowers and crashing into him. He audibly exhales and his arms wrap tightly around me. We lock together, overwhelmed and crying.

After endless seconds, he pulls away, kissing me thoroughly, the thrust of his tongue lulling us into a peaceful reprieve from all the ache. The salty kiss sparks a healing, a beginning and we both sigh into it with collective relief. When we pull away, I bury my face in his chest, and we exchange whispers.

“Let’s get on this plan.”

I nod into his chest. “Okay, but you’re going to have to call and apologize to my mother.”

“I already have.”

“Good.”

“I mean it. Let’s leave today. Half my shit is in my truck.”

“Fine with me.”

“I’m serious, Mila. I’m done with this.”

“We’ll see.”

“You don’t think I’m done?”

“For the moment, yes, but at one point you loved it far more than you resent it now. And maybe in the future, you’ll decide you love it again.”

“Maybe, I don’t know. It feels over.”

“Well, if all else fails, in twenty years, when the baby is grown, we’ll come back under the radar as Gladys and Sean McConnery, and you can make a comeback. Let’s bounce that off into the universe and see where it lands.”

He palms my face with warm hands, grinning down at me. “I missed you so much, Dame, so much.”

“You can’t act with me, ever again, Lucas. Ever.”

“I won’t,” he says, stroking my cheeks with reverent thumbs. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He presses our foreheads together.

“So, where are we off to?”

“We’ll figure it out, the three of us.”

I see the flash of brilliant white before he crushes his lips to mine.

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