“Rowen,” he said at last. His voice was low and vibrated just enough that I knew he was trying to keep some emotions in check. “I love you.”
I nodded my head beneath his chin.
“If there was any way for me to go back in time and protect you from that piece of shit, I would do it like that.” He snapped his fingers. “If there was any way for me to go back and kick the shit out of him so he’d never even think about touching another girl again, I would.”
The anger he restrained almost made me shiver. Other than that night with Garth when he’d come to get me, I hadn’t heard Jesse sound like that.
“But since I can’t travel back in time, I’m going to promise you this now. I will protect you. I will keep you safe.” His mouth dropped to my forehead and he kissed it. “You are safe.”
I was safe.
I. Was. Safe.
Those were three words I’d needed to hear from my mom five years ago. Jesse’s arms wrapped around me the way I’d needed her arms to wrap around me then. He comforted me exactly the way I’d needed comforting as a terrified thirteen-year-old. He was healing the wound that had been opened so long ago, I’d almost forgotten it was still there. I’d distracted myself with things that numbed my mind and body just enough I could continue to forget.
I didn’t need those things anymore. I’d never need them again. I wasn’t healed—I wasn’t naive enough to think some words and hugs would heal that kind of a wound—but I’d been heard. Finally, someone had heard me and believed me.
I could take my first step forward. Finally.
“Thank you for listening,” I said. “And thank you for what you just said. I’m sorry my past is such a ginormous cluster-fuck.”
Jesse’s head shook.
“Please don’t say you don’t care about what I’ve done or what’s been done to me,” I said before he could. “Please don’t say that.”
“I wasn’t going to say that.” His lips brushed over my forehead. “I do care about your past, Rowen. It’s made you who you are today, and that’s the girl I’m in love with.”
“Okay. Did you come with some sort of manual that goes over the exact right thing to say to a girl?” I lifted my head so I could look at his face. After a moment, he mirrored my smile. “Because I swear to God, you say the exact perfect thing at the right time.”
“I don’t need a manual to tell the truth.” He kissed the top of my head and pulled the blankets around me. “We’d better get to sleep. Or else you’re going to fall asleep in the blueberry pancake batter in the morning.”
Jesse was back. The anger was gone, his muscles had stop quivering, and his voice was back to normal. I’d just admitted my darkest secret, and he’d heard it, accepted it, comforted me, and moved on.
After five years of feeling like I was suffocating, I could breathe again.
“I don’t want to go to sleep,” I said.
“You’ve officially de-flowered me, and we’ve talked about so many serious things, my head’s still spinning.” I elbowed his side for the “de-flower” comment. “What else could you possibly have in mind?”
I rubbed my leg down his stomach. “You want to know the perk to the guy being the one losing his virginity?”
Jesse cleared his throat as my leg brushed over the part of him that was already hard again. “That he’s not a virgin anymore?”
I laughed as I pivoted on top of him. “No,” I said, running my hands up his chest. His eyes were excited, along with the rest of his body. No sleep for the weary. “That he can do it again right after.”
Jesse had been right. I did almost pass out into the pancake batter the next morning. Although it was huckleberry, not blueberry.
We did go to sleep. Eventually. But an hour of sleep didn’t really cut it. I was waiting for the coffee to brew and almost counting the minutes until I could be with Jesse again.
It would be one long-ass day.
“Penny for your thoughts.” Rose came up beside me holding a bowl and beating the eggs inside it with a wire whisk.
I didn’t care if she offered me a million dollars for my thoughts. I would not admit having dirty thoughts to the mother of the boy I was having them about.
“It’s too early for thoughts,” I said, flipping a few pancakes. After my first pancake catastrophe, I hadn’t burned another batch.
Knock on wood.
Or . . . ehem . . .
Shoot. I was blushing in front of Rose.
“Did you enjoy the dance last night?” she asked.
Focus on the pancakes and try not to sound like an imbecile. “I enjoyed myself.” Especially the after party.
“I’m glad, sweetie,” she said, heading back over to the stove with her whipped eggs. “We all work so hard around here, it’s nice to let your hair down and have a good time.”
Mission accomplished, then.
I was about to check the pancakes when the back door swung open and a string of cowboys wandered in. They were all a little bleary-eyed, but one was especially so. Tired as he looked, Jesse had an I-just-got-laid grin on his face.
He hung his hat up and headed my way, making no qualms about it.
I’m pretty sure I flushed again as a few of the high, high points of last night ran through my mind. Our second time, I’d introduced Jesse to the cowgirl position—I thought he could especially appreciate it—and we’d taken our time. Well, we’d taken a bit more time. Not much.
“Good morning,” I said with a bit of inflection as he stopped in front of me. He was close, a little too close for being in a kitchen of people who thought we were just friends.
Jesse snatched an apple from the copper bowl on the counter. “Why, yes. Yes, it is,” he said, crunching into the apple. He managed to keep that grin on his face the whole time.
“How did you sleep?” I teased, smiling into the griddle.
He leaned in closer and whispered, “I didn’t.”
A shiver ran down my spine in the middle of a hot kitchen on a summer morning. The man had the art of inflection down.
“How do you feel this morning?” I asked, trying to sound like we were having the most ordinary of conversations.
He sunk his teeth into the apple again, his eyes gleaming. “Like I lost something,” he said before chewing the chunk of apple in his mouth.
I snickered quietly.
“Oh, no, hun,” Rose said, appearing out of nowhere. “What did you lose?”
Jesse’s mouth stopped crunching as he did that whole deer-in-the-headlights thing again. He’d done a lot of that in the past twenty-four hours. “Uhhh . . . I don’t know . . . what I lost?” He glanced at me like he was looking for some help.
I was still too frozen to talk.
Rose gave him an amused face. “Then what were you just saying you lost?”
Jesse gulped down what was left of the apple in his mouth. “I don’t know. I won’t remember what I lost until I find it.”
I joined Rose in giving him an amused look. She lifted her hand to his forehead and ran it over his face. “Are you coming down with something, Jesse?”
“Nope,” he said, sliding me a quick look. “I’ve never felt better. But I want to tell you and Dad something.”
My mouth dropped open. He wouldn’t do that yet. When he said he’d tell his parents, I thought I’d at least have a few days to get used to the idea. Apparently not. I mouthed What? at him.
His response? A wink and an I’ve got this mouthed back.
“Well?” Neil said, coming up behind Rose and resting his hands on her shoulders. “Tell away.”
I was wincing before Jesse said one word.
“Rowen and I are dating,” he said, all matter-of-fact. “We’re together. We like each other. She rocks my world. I rock hers.” He shot me a sideways look and tried to keep his smile contained.
My mouth fell open a bit more.
Jesse lifted a shoulder. “We just wanted you both to know so it didn’t seem like we were sneaking around behind your backs.”