Sound of Silence(96)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE


THE START OF FOREVER





Caden



ONE DAY, ONE flight, and everything is different. The world is different. The sights, sounds, air and silence are all different in Lilyfalls. Eight thousand miles have disappeared, and I hadn't thought much about anything other than five hundred different ways to kiss Piper. Biting her full bottom lip is at the top of the list and I'm minutes away from feeling the softness between my teeth. But as the gravel crunching under my boots transitions to stiff August grass and the clearing beyond the house nears, I lose my train of thought.

I see her. Piper. She stands in front of an easel, brush in hand, but she is the masterpiece. Painted by late afternoon sun that cuts through the trees, she glows. White and pink hair brushes her shoulders as the wind catches her short sundress, ballooning it from her body. It disappears, becoming transparent in the blinding light, her silhouette etched in taut lines. My chest hurts it's so full.

One decision changes lives. One act, one moment, alters the course of many. Mine is renewed. I'm not living for the thrill of the hunt, the adrenaline rush, or the next mission. Not anymore. This is what I need.

A rasping bark draws my attention to a blanket spread out in a shady patch beneath a tree. Gus nudges a laidback JT with his nose, and the kid laughs as if it's the best joke he's ever heard. Baby giggles echo off the cliff only to be swallowed by the rush of crashing waves as they play.

Gus, the amazing guard dog that he is, finally looks up. He tilts his head and delivers a damn good stink-eye. Crazy-ass mutt giving me a hard time. I chuckle, and he lets out a raspy bark. Then he sprints. I kneel to catch him but the insane pup charges, colliding with my chest.

"I missed you too, buddy," I whisper into his neck when he settles. He's huge, and so is JT. How is it possible they could both change so much in four weeks?

Gus and I walk to the blanket where I'm quick to hit up JT for a giggle. His reaction is about the same as Gus's-feet and arms waving frantically when he sees me-but his bark is a grunt and a squeal. I lift him up and sigh into his forehead, but it's Piper who steals all the air from my lungs.

She's statue still, staring. Time slows. My eyes are on hers, light to dark, and in them I find hope. It stretches on and into a thousand words hanging between us. But we live in the silence.

Our silence.

And it's full of the past, but has room for the future. One isn't less important than the other, and in this moment and in all the moments to come, it's the echo of our collective memories that will fill my mind.

"You're here." 

Goddamn her voice. I shiver, even though it's hot as fuck in Oregon. "I am."

"Gavin?"

I close my eyes against the emotion that stings them, and yet relief liberates my limbs, and I grab the back of my neck. "Here in Lilyfalls. Home. But . . ." I swallow down residual fear that he'll somehow slip from my grasp. For five days, I haven't let him out of my sight, not after shocking his heart back to life or in the HELO trip to camp or the medivac to Germany. There was no way in hell Dad was dying in Afghanistan. "But right about now, he's probably wishing I wasn't so good at my job. Tess is giving him some shit about missing fifteen years of phone calls."

She smiles. Oh fuck. She smiles that damn smile that pierces my heart, and I can't breathe. Her gaze drops to my chest and the khaki T-shirt I've had on for twenty-four hours, maybe more. And God love her, she drags her gaze down to my stomach and then stares at my dick. I'm instantly hard but she ignores the growing pitch in my pants, popping her eyes back to mine. "Caden?"

"Piper?"

"It's good to see you. Especially in camo. You look-" She licks her bottom lip, and my cock notices, straining to reach her. "You look hot in camo. Not hot like sweaty hot, but I can see that you are. Your arms are huge, by the way. Really, really huge biceps, and you're . . ." Piper waves around. "Wet. I mean I'm wet. But what I really mean is that you're freaking sexy hot. Like, really good-looking."

"Is that right?"

"Yeah. And if I wasn't crazy and you weren't a mirage, I would totally fuck you."

My lip twitches, and it's hard to keep a straight face when she is so goddamn adorable it hurts to hold back a grin, but I manage through the challenge.

"A mirage, huh?"

She nods. "A really beautiful dream."

I step forward until she tilts her head back to keep eye contact. With JT cradled in one arm, my other reaches around to her firm ass, and I pull her against my aching dick. She sighs, and I take advantage of her parted lips by licking and biting into her mouth, deep, hot, tasting everything I've missed and kissing away the missing days. I kiss her into what feels like a good part of our forever. When my lungs burn, I break away, leaning my forehead against hers.