It Happened One Summer (It Happened One Summer 1)

“Hey, Piper. I was hoping I’d run into you!” Adrian shouted over the music. “You look fucking amazing. We should get a drink—”

Brendan loomed behind her ex-boyfriend and, without hesitation, flicked him aside like a pesky ant, sending him flying, and Piper wasted no time in launching herself into the recharging station. A sense of rightness took hold in a split second, bringing her back to herself. Back to earth. Brendan lifted her up, locking his arms around her as tight as they would go, and she melted into the embrace like butter. Her legs wrapped around his hips, she buried her face in his neck and sobbed like a baby. “Brendan. Brendan.”

“I’ve got you. I’m right here.” Fiercely, he kissed the side of her face, her hair, her temple. “Stay or go, baby? What do you need?”

“Go, please. Please. Get me out of here.”

Piper felt Brendan’s surprise register—surprise that she wanted to leave?—followed by a tightening of his muscles. One hand cupped the back of her head protectively, and then he was moving through the crowd, ordering people out of his way, and she was positive she’d never, ever been safer in her entire life. She breathed in the scent of his cologne and clung to his shoulders, secure in her absolute trust of this man. He’d come. After everything, he’d come.

A moment later, they were out on the street, but Brendan didn’t stop moving. He carried Piper past the line of gaping onlookers, kept going until the pumping bass faded and relative quiet fell around them. And only then did he stop walking, but he didn’t let her go. He walked her into the doorway of a bank and rocked her side to side, his arms like a vise.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he grated against her forehead. “I’m so fucking sorry. I shouldn’t have left. I should never have left or made you cry. Please forgive me.”

Piper hiccupped into his neck and nodded; she would forgive him for anything in that moment if he just stayed. But before she could say anything, he continued.

“I do have faith in you, Piper. I will never doubt you again. You deserve so much better than what I gave, and it was wrong of me, so wrong, to get angry at you for protecting yourself. You were giving so much already. You give so much to everyone and everything you touch, you incredible fucking girl, and I love you. More than any goddamn ocean, do you hear me? I love you, and I’m falling deeper by the minute, so, baby, please stop crying. You looked so beautiful up there. God, you looked so beautiful and I couldn’t reach you.”

His words made her feel like she was floating. They were pure Brendan in their honesty and depth and gruffness and humility. And they were for her.

How wholly he gave himself, this man.

How wholly she wanted to give herself in return.

“I love you, too,” she whispered tremulously, kissing his neck, his mouth, pulling deeply on his firm, welcoming lips. “I love you, too. I love you. I didn’t want to be there tonight. I only wanted to be with you, Brendan. I just wanted to hear your voice so badly.”

“Then I’ll talk until my voice gives out,” he rasped, slanting his lips over the top of hers, breathing into her mouth. Accepting her breath in return. “I’ll love you until my heart gives out. I’ll be your man for a thousand years. Longer if I’m allowed.” With a miserable sound, he kissed the tears off her cheeks. “I messed up so bad, Piper. I let my fear of losing you get between us. It blinded me.” He drew back, waited until she looked at him. Up into all that intensity. “If you need Los Angeles to be happy, then we’ll make it work. I can go up north for crab season and dock the new boat closer to LA the rest of the year. If you’ll have me back, we’ll make it happen. I won’t let us fail. Just let me love you forever.”

“If I’ll have you back . . .” She exhaled her disbelief, his words taking a moment to actually sink in. Oh wow. Wow. Her knees started to tremble around his hips, love surging up inside of her and filling every part of her that had cracked over the last three days. “You would do that, wouldn’t you? You would change your whole life for me.”

“I’d be honored to. Just say the word.”

“B-Brendan.” Her chest ached almost too much to speak. “When I was falling in love with you, I was falling in love with Westport at the same time. That is my home. Our home. And I don’t want to be anywhere else. I knew it as soon as I got here tonight. Nothing was right. Nothing was right without you.”