by Liora Blake
“I can absolutely handle that. What I can’t handle is this.” Jake waves his hands between us. “I can’t handle doing this again if you aren’t sure. Don’t fuck with my head or my heart. Not much left of either at this point.”
“I’m positive. No question.”
Jake groans and cups my face in his hands, mouth coming to meet mine in a kiss that feels like homecoming and absolution all in one. My hands come to part his coat and slide along the ridges of his torso. I immediately want to pull his clothes off but stop myself; we just reconciled two seconds ago, after all. I still my hands abruptly. Jake groans.
“You still sure about this now that you’ve grabbed on to me there? I’ve been eating my feelings since I got home. You may not be as enamored with the results on my physique.”
A long snort of a laugh leaves me and I drop my forehead to his chest.
“Come on, you’d have to have spent the last month laying in bed and eating nothing but things that involve the words ‘super-sized’ to have any effect on this body. Is that what you did?”
Another groan. “Not exactly. But I ate my weight in doughnuts from that café I like. Boysenberry glazed, toasted coconut, strawberry vanilla. These ones with caramel icing and bacon. All of them. My stomach was starting to feel a little shell-shocked under the sugar assault.” Jake pauses and runs his hands down my back. “I missed you so much. So much.”
All I can do is whisper the same. Jake urges me back a few inches and starts to walk, pushing me along with him, arms wrapping around my waist, before laying his hands firmly against my ass.
“I happen to know there is a perfectly sturdy, spacious desk in the back here. And you own this place now, so let’s go break it in and christen your new business-owner status. We have tons of making up to do. As in, we should stop by the store on the way home to stock up on supplies. MREs, rations, bottled water, shit like that. Maybe some Advil. I don’t plan to let up until we’re both unable to walk or form complete sentences.”
A few hours later, Jake is standing on the sidewalk in front of The Beauty Barn, waiting for me as I pull the door closed and lock it. When I turn around, he’s smiling softly, his hand outstretched and ready to take mine. The few streetlamps in town are flickering to life and I can’t stop grinning because for the first time, there isn’t any hesitation in my heart.
I take his hand, but step in front of him and turn my face up to see his.
“Tell me where you’d take me. If you could choose—which, for the record, you don’t get to do—but, if you could, tell me where.”
“Aw, hell, Shoelace.” Jake tilts his head and puts one tender kiss to my lips. “Anywhere. Everywhere. Home.”
“But where’s home?”
Jake shrugs and pulls on my hand until we’re walking down the sidewalk. “Hell if I know. Wherever you are.”
A broad grin covers his face and I realize that, with him, I’ll never quite know what lies ahead. We might end up in Tasmania or Tucson. Baltimore or Bali. We might stay in Crowell forever and build a love story to rival Ruth Ann and Vernon’s. Or we very well could land in some town I’ve never heard of. The only certainty will be him.
And us.
Holding hands on Main Street, somewhere.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Victoria Lowes of the Bent Agency for taking on True North and working to find the right place for it to land. To Elana Cohen, not only for guiding this particular book to a better place, but also for shaping the entire series in a way that made it so much stronger.
When this series started, I didn’t have readers or, honestly, anyone who knew anything about my writing. But I’ve been lucky enough to discover a wonderful group of readers, bloggers, and reviewers who have been tremendously generous with their love for these stories. A simple thank-you probably isn’t enough, but it’s the best I can do from behind a laptop. Hugs and cupcakes if I ever meet you on the street.
Warren: I’ve got your pedestal built, your halo is on order, and I’ve poured you a Yeti. You’ve been a rock and a soft place to land. Thank you.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE TRUE SERIES BY LIORA BLAKE
True North
True Devotion
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Liora Blake
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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition October 2015
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ISBN 978-1-4767-8632-2
