Off Limits Neighbor

My mom comes out of the house and waves her hands. “Klara, keep your voice down. You’re making a scene.”

I just roll my eyes. We’re the only people here. There’s no scene to make. But the motion makes me take my eyes off Rey, and the next moment he’s on his feet and his mouth is on mine.

This is another claiming kiss. Searing. Burning. A kiss that’s meant to ground me right here and now. Every emotion in the world pours through his lips and into me. “I want that too,” he whispers against my lips. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Klara. I realized it today and I was going to tell you. And I don’t ever want you to sacrifice your future for me.”

“You are my future,” I say. “We’ll make it together. I think with your skills and mine we’ll make a pretty good team, don’t you think?”

He grins. “I do think that.” His smile drops, and he’s looking at me seriously. “I may not ever be who your parents want me to be, but I’m glad that I’m who you want me to be.”

I kiss him again. Hard. “You are. You are that. And you’re not the only one who’s in love, you know. Now please, take me home and fuck me until I forget my own name.”

“Home?” he asks.

“Yes,” I say. “Home. Our home. With our cat.”

He can’t stop the smile that’s on his face. “You have no idea what it means to hear you say that.”

Rey sweeps me into his arms and walks with me down the sidewalk toward our house. And I’ve never felt surer that this is where I’m supposed to be.

Epilogue

Klara

Six Months Later

The stars ripple out overhead as we drive into the desert. “Where the hell are we going, Rey?”

He grins over at me from the driver’s seat. “You haven’t figured it out yet?”

I really haven’t. It’s been a hell of a week. The renovation project that we’ve been working on together has taken all the energy out of me this week, and I’m pretty much brain dead. The cul-de-sac project was so successful that the city hired us to refurbish more old buildings. Which is awesome. And exhausting. “You could ask me what I had for breakfast today and I wouldn’t know, Rey,” I say.

He reaches across the seat of the truck and weaves his fingers through mine.

“We once talked about dirty thoughts, and I told you that I wanted sex under the stars. I finally found the perfect place.”

“Oh my god,” I laugh. “I completely forgot about that.”

“It’s not far,” he says. And it’s not. Not even ten minutes later we’re pulling up to a large rock bathed in moonlight.

“See?” Rey says. “No lights in sight, and no chance of being bitten.”

I laugh. “I do see.”

He pulls me out of the car and over to the giant rock that’s still warm even though the sun set hours ago. Even in the winter, it’s hot here.

“Before we go up there,” Rey says, backing me up against the stone, “I need to tell you something.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, and I haven’t been able to find the right time.”

“Oh my god, please don’t tell me we’re not going to get the wood for that flooring. Because if we don’t have that color, I’m going to have to rework the whole color scheme again and I’m not sure that I have the energy for that.”

He puts a finger to my lips while smiling. “The wood is fine, and I want that to be the last reference to work that you make tonight, all right?”

I press my lips together. “Okay.”

“It might be a little soon for this,” he says. “But we’ve always moved a little faster than most couples.”

“Okay,” I say, drawing out the word like a question.

“But the last six months have been the best of my life, and now that you’re in it, I cannot imagine my life without you.”

He starts pulling away from me, and it takes me a second to realize that he’s pulling away and down. Oh my god. Rey sinks onto one knee in front of me, and every bit of air in my lungs is gone.

“Klara Miller,” he says with a smile, “will you marry me?”

The ring in his hand sparkles in the pale moonlight, silver and diamonds and twisting filigree. I used to imagine this when I was younger. The girlish fantasy that you had about your crush. This is so, so much better.

“Is this real?” I manage to say.

“It’s very real.”

“Yes,” I breathe. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”

My voice breaks with emotion, but it’s lost in the way he sweeps me up into a kiss, pressing me harder into the rock and blowing away every other thought that’s not him.