“You fight for that woman,” his father instructed. “She is not the same girl she was. And that’s a bad thing and a good thing. But you fight for her. Do not let her go.”
“Don’t plan to.”
But it turned out, he didn’t need to fight for her.
Because, to Caroline, turning up at Castle Springs, facing his past, was her definition of fighting, even with all she’d seen.
His mother wanted him at home that night.
He knew it.
He wanted it.
But he needed Caroline. Time without her, mere weeks, had been grueling. He couldn’t breathe until he was inside her.
His father must have seen that kind of need, so he murmured to his mother, he made promises to come back for breakfast ‘as soon as he woke, no matter how early,’ kissed his sister, mother, shook his father’s hand, and he took Caroline home on the back of his bike.
They barely made it inside her condo for the first time.
They got as far as the hallway the second.
And the third, finally ended in bed.
“I think that it’s time we started trying to be responsible,” Caroline whispered into the night. “Or at least the outlaw version of it.”
Jagger froze, thinking of a conversation from a lifetime ago. Of slipping a ring onto Caroline’s finger. “Are you proposing to me, Peaches?”
She rested her chin on her hand. “Depends, is that a yes, or a soul-crushing no?”
He kissed her in response.
Epilogue
Ten Months Later
Caroline
Things I’m grateful for:
My husband makes me sweet coffee every morning.
We finally closed on our holiday home in Castle Springs.
Macy and I have both managed to convince Hansen to construct us our own room. Construction starts tomorrow.
I have now discovered I have an interior decorating style.
I do not go to sleep alone.
I do not wake up alone.
The club is repairing itself…and I see Scarlett every month when we ride down there.
I’m no longer afraid of a shower—because I never do that alone either
I missed my period this month
I don’t have enough time to complete this list because my husband is walking into the room, with a wicked smile and a promise in his eyes. A promise he will never break.
THE END…
For now.