than here with you.”

I smiled at his statement. “I’d say we got to know each other on very intimate levels that night!”

“I know! But it made me realize something… it made me realize how comfortable I am with you. And then that first night I stayed with you in your

bed, when I woke up in the morning holding you I thought, ‘this is the woman I want to wake up to for the rest of my life.’ I knew that before I even

kissed you for the first time.

“Every time I get angry or upset, you have this magical way of bringing me back to Earth. I don’t know how you do it, but somehow you manage

to keep me sane.”

“You do the same for me, you know,” I added.

“That’s good to know!” He shot me his sexy smirk.

Ryan lifted my hand to his lips. “So when I say those words to you, that is what I truly mean. You need to realize that who you are, right now, is

exactly what I want and need.”

My heart never felt so full. I looked into his eyes. “No fair… you stole all of my lines!”

“Ryan, Taryn. Dinner is ready.” His mother shouted from the deck.

Ryan looked at me. I shook my head quickly; I wasn’t finished with our conversation.

“Start without us,” Ryan yelled back.

“So what else is on your mind?” he asked.

I stared up at the stars, watching the flashing lights of an airplane as it passed through the nighttime sky. It was a good distraction while my mind

sorted through the various insecurities that have been plaguing me lately. I was unsure if any of them were conversations I wanted to get into right

now. He squeezed me again. “If my memory serves me correctly, it was right after I mentioned filming Slipknot when you shut down on me last night.”

My head bowed instinctively and I sighed.

“I’m scared…Ryan,” I said slowly. “You’re going to be on location more than you will be home – wherever home may be. Separation, growing

apart…” I winced. “It’s going to be hard, and I’m afraid if we force our relationship to be at stages where it hasn’t grown naturally, well…”

I looked him in the eyes. “What happens when you’re filming and you have to do some love scenes with another woman? What if her kiss is what

you feel you’re missing out on? On-set romances happen all the time – some by accident. You know as well as I do that it happens. I can’t get it out

of my head that all actors end up falling for actresses. What if bar owner from Rhode Island isn’t enough?”

“Honey, there’s a big difference between kissing you and faking it for film!” he laughed out. “I’m getting cast into a lot of romantic movies, and

it’s going to be unavoidable. Everyone wants to see romance. But it’s not real. It’s not this. What you and I have… this is real. You’ll just have to trust

me.”“

Well these are all the things that I’m thinking about. It’s not easy for me to trust men,” I whispered.

“I know. I have to prove that I’m not like the others. It’s all right. I can do that,” he said, giving me an elbow nudge. “How about if I call you every

fifteen minutes to remind you that I’m madly in love with you? Will that work?”

I rolled my eyes and laughed.

“I can wear one of those iron chastity belts if it will make you feel better.”

“Would you?” I kidded back.

“I’ll have to get you another chain so you can wear the key as a necklace.”

I smirked. “I don’t want you to think that I’m some insecure mess. It’s just that, well, this stuff happens, and…”

“What about letting Marie run the pub?” he quickly suggested.

Great… he found another one of my issues.

“Ryan, the pub is my source of income. Marie isn’t opposed to taking care of things so I can travel, but honestly, with or without you, I need to

maintain my own sense of stability. I’m not going to sit back and do nothing while having a high time spending your money. That’s not me. I’ve got to

hold my own in this relationship.”

Ryan crossed his ankle up on his knee.

“Did you give any more thought to leasing out the kitchen to Tammy? Then that’s even more income for you. Even if Tammy doesn’t use it, you

can lease it out to someone else.”

“That’s going to take a lot of money, Ryan. More than I can afford to spend right now. And I know what you’re going to say.”

“Twenty grand, Taryn, is not a big deal. I still think that’s a lot more than what it should cost just to replace the plumbing. We can make it legal if

you want so you don’t have to worry. Or we could just take it out in trade.” He pulled me by my shoulder to bump me into his chest.

I sighed.

“Listen Taryn, I’m not going anywhere. So I have to travel when I film. So what. Like I said, we both travel from time to time and then I have a few

weeks off here and there. If I promise to… slow down, will you promise to quit worrying?”

I nodded.

“Say it!” he taunted.

“I promise,” I said, laughing lightly at his urging.

“Okay… and I promise too.” Ryan’s fingers lifted my chin.

I gazed lovingly into his eyes. Those eyes, so blue, filled to the brim with passion and conviction, were absolutely mesmerizing. We were drawn

together by an invisible magnetism that reached all the way to the core of my being.

“I love you, Taryn Lynn Mitchell,” he said with a smile.

“I love you too, Ryan William Christensen.”

Although I thought I had been in love before with other men, never did those three little words mean so much to me as they did at this moment

with this man. The feelings that flowed between us were natural and effortless; as easy as breathing.

While he was kissing me, I heard his stomach growl loudly. “We better get inside for dinner.” I pulled him by the hands.

“You know, when you walked away with your keys I thought you were planning on speeding off in your car.”

“No!” I laughed. “I actually got you a birthday present today. There’s no way I can get it home without you seeing it, so I thought I’d just give it to

you now.” I unlocked the car and he let go of my hand.

“I got it at the antiques store down the road. I hope you like it.”

“Wow! Look at this! It’s an old Gibson!” His fingers strummed over the strings, but his cell phone buzzing in his pocket distracted him. “Ahh, I just

turned the damn thing on and already it’s ringing.”

“Hello? Who is this? Oh… what?” Ryan was short with whoever was on the other line. He turned his shoulder away from me, dropping his voice

to a whisper. “I thought I made things perfectly clear the last time we had this conversation. I told you… things have changed. Then stop calling me,”

he said quite callously.

He turned his phone off and walked a few feet away before noticing that I wasn’t following him. He held his hand out to me and waited until I

caught up, silently towing me towards the house.

“Are you two all right?” Ellen asked when we entered the kitchen.

“Yeah, Mom. Taryn and I had some things to discuss that were more important than dinner.” He picked a piece of fish off of the plate and

shoved it in his mouth. “See this?” he whispered in my ear. “Family, peace, no screaming fans, no security, home-cooked meals, normalcy. This is

what I want. This is what I miss.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “Because it’s the only way I know.”

After dinner, I grabbed some blankets and with two open bottles of wine we made our way out to the backyard. Ryan and his father threw more

logs on the fire, setting a nice blaze in the fire pit. Millions of stars dotted the clear sky.

I took Ryan’s guitar and softly played a few chords.

“What are you playing?” Ryan asked.

“Nothing… I just had some lyrics in my head.”

We took turns playing, each of us adding to the melody.

We were trying to come up with words that rhymed. After an hour, we had written part of a song… our song.