“Can you tell me what happened?” I ask as she cuddles into my chest and I wrap my arms around her.
“He sent me a text saying he’d keep our secret if I met him at the lake. When I got there, I knew right away something was wrong, but I still wanted to try. I didn’t want what we shared to be tainted by him or anyone else. I thought I could fix things.”
“Baby girl. There’s nothing to fix. There’s nothing about us that’s broken or wrong. It’s just different. We’re not related by blood, just by marriage. And Mom and Dad love us both so much that I know all they want is for us to be happy.”
I rub circles on her back and hear her sniff and nod against my chest. “You’re right. I was just scared.”
“Did he hurt you?” I don’t think things got far enough for him to physically hurt her, but she was shaken up emotionally, and that’s as bad in my eyes. “Tell me what to do to help.”
“You got there in time, Jasper. God, if you hadn’t, I don’t know…” She trails off, and I feel her shiver.
I pull her closer to me, wrapping my leg around hers and trying to warm her with my body. “I’ll always come to your rescue, Libby. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“Thank you,” she says, leaning her face up and kissing my neck.
I feel her soft lips on my skin, and I close my eyes, loving the feeling. I hold on to the thought that she’s safe and everything is going to be okay. As long as she’s in my arms, I can handle anything that comes our way.
12
Libby
I wake up to soft kisses on my neck and a warm body wrapped around mine. A feeling of complete safety envelops me. I open my eyes to see Jasper staring at me. He leans in, placing a feather-light kiss to my mouth. It makes my insides turn to mush. This is how I always wanted to wake up. I dreamed about it for so long and wanted it so bad.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I tell him.
Once I hit his bed and he wrapped around me, I’d never felt so relaxed in my life. Felt like I was exactly where I belonged. The feeling of home came back to me. The feeling I’d had lately that had been slipping away, and now I know why. Because Jasper had been slipping away from me, and he was always my home. Since the first time met, I knew where I was supposed to be.
“I didn’t mind.” He pushes a strand of hair out of my face.
I see a scratch on his knuckle, which I’m guessing is from the fight with Owen. I grab it and look it over before bringing it to my mouth and kissing it. I feel like a naïve jerk for meeting up with him. I should have known better. But my need to make everything okay had won out. I didn’t want to upset anything. I merely wanted to try to keep us a secret.
Jasper smiles, and I place more kisses on the scratch. It was something he always did for me.
“Does it hurt?” I run my finger along it, still feeling guilty that he got hurt.
“No, nothing hurts right now. For the first time in a long time, there’s no pain.” I reach out, wanting to touch him. I run my fingers along his cheek, feeling the roughness of his bristles after not shaving for a few days.
“I didn’t know how much it was hurting until now. Until I got a taste of what I was missing. All I was feeling was empty,” I tell him, knowing what he means about the pain. It’s crazy to think all this time we both wanted to be together. That the ache I’d been having was so much deeper than I even knew. “It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that you’ve wanted me all this time, too.”
“No, it’s not. Let me show you.” He sits up on the bed, taking me with him, and I get my first good look at his bedroom. A giant bed sits in the center, with a nightstand on each side. I look around and see the walls are covered in framed pictures of us. Each wall is decorated with a collage.
From fishing, to riding horses, to cooking in the kitchen together, to family trips. It’s us. Our years together. He grabs my hand, pulling me from the room and down the hall, where he opens another door. I stop short in the doorway.
It’s an office. Well, half of it is. One side has Jasper's desk and all kinds of mechanical books and a few machine-looking parts sitting on it, along with his laptop. The other side is what has my attention. It looks like the setup I have at Mom and Dad’s house, only with more room. A sewing machine and racks to hang up different aprons. Various fabrics and linens, laid out ready to be used.
“What is all this?” I look at him, and he gives me a look like I’m not getting it. Once again, he pulls me away, past a living room, a dining room, and into a giant kitchen.