Take Me, Cowboy(32)

“But do you love my porcupine pajamas?” she asked, her voice breaking.

“I’m pretty ambivalent about your porcupine pajamas, I’m not going to lie. But if they’re a nonnegotiable part of the deal, then I can adjust.”

She shook her head. “They aren’t nonnegotiable. But I probably will irritate you with them.” Then she sobbed, unable to hold her emotions back any longer. She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his skin, breathing his scent in. “Chase, I love you so much. Look what we were protecting ourselves from.”

He laughed. “When you put it that way, it seems like we were being pretty stupid.”

“Fear is stupid. And it’s strong.”

He tightened his hold on her. “It isn’t stronger than this.”

Not stronger than fifteen years of friendship, than holding each other through grief and pleasure, laughter and pain.

When she had pulled up and seen his truck here, Anna Brown had murder on her mind. And now, everything was different.

“Remember when you promised you were going to make me a woman?” she asked.

“Right. I do. You laughed at me.”

“Yes, I did.” She stretched up on her toes and kissed his lips. “Chase McCormack, I’m pretty sure you did make me a woman. Maybe not in the way you meant. But you made me feel...like a whole person. Like I could finally put together all the parts of me and just be me. Not hide any of it anymore.”

He closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against hers. “I’m glad, Anna. Because you sure as hell made me a man. The man that I want to be, the man that I need to be. I can’t change the past, and I can’t live in it anymore, either.”

“Good. Then I think we should go ahead and make ourselves a future.”

“Works for me.” He smiled. “I love you. You’re everything.”

“I love you, too.” It felt so good to say that. To say it and not be afraid. To show her whole heart and not hold anything back.

“I bet that I can make you say you love me at least a hundred more times tonight. I bet I can get you to say it every day for the rest of our lives.”

She smiled, taking his hand and walking toward the house, not caring about the rain. “I bet you can.”

He led her inside, leaving a trail of clothes in the hall behind them, leaving her beautiful dress on the floor. She didn’t care at all.

“And I bet—” he wrapped his arm around her waist, then laid her down on the bed “—tonight I can make you scream.”

“I’ll take that bet,” she said, wrapping her legs around his hips.

And that was a bet they both won.

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