She threw her arms around him, nearly knocking him to the floor. She sobbed noisily against his neck. She probably got snot and God knows what else all over his shirt. She didn’t care.
“I love you today, Max. Today. And tomorrow. And the next day. A year from now. A decade from now. When we’re both old and gray and toothless, I’ll still love you.”
He crushed her to him. His arms held her so tightly that she couldn’t move—she didn’t want to. His entire body shook, and he just held on to her as she cried.
“Thank God,” he whispered. “Thank God. I love you so damn much, Callie. I’m nothing without you. Please tell me that we’ll live together in your dream house. It was yours before but somehow in the building of this, of making all your daydreams a reality, it became my dream too. I want to live it with you.”
She squeezed him for a long moment because she couldn’t speak around the sobs knotting her throat. He rubbed his hands up and down her back and rocked her back and forth.
“I just want to be with you,” she whispered. “That’s my dream, Max. Not this house. Not this land. Just you.”
He pulled her away and smoothed the ragged strands of hair from her face. “And you’re my dream, Callie. Always. You loving me. Me loving you. That’s enough. It’s all I want. It’s all I’ll ever want.”
She smiled. God, it felt so good to smile and know that the world was finally right. Then she leaned forward and kissed him.
Their lips melted together like snow in the middle of a thaw. He kissed her hungrily. Breathlessly. With so much love and emotion that her chest ached with it.
Then she merely rested her forehead against his as they struggled to catch their breath. He touched her. She touched him. Two lovers reunited after a long separation.
“Your family is worried. We need to go see them,” he said.
She pulled away, startled by his statement.
He grinned. “I think you’ll find that your family and I have come to an…understanding. They love you. I love you. It’s common ground no one can argue.”
She closed her eyes, dangerously close to tears all over again. Euphoria settled over her. After so long of being weighted down by grief and sadness, the jolt of happiness that surged through her veins was intoxicating.
She wanted to yell. She wanted to jump up and down. She wanted to tell the entire world that life was…perfect.
“What do you say we trek over to your folks’ place and let them hug you and welcome you home, and then we can come back here and try out the new bed in the master bedroom.”
She slipped her hand into his and let him pull her to her feet. She smiled up at him, her heart near to bursting.
“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”
“And just so you know, Lily and your mother have been planning our wedding for two months now. I think they all saw just how determined I was never to let you go.”
She laughed. “I’m okay with that. I’m very okay with that.”
As Max pulled her toward the door, he turned back to her and smiled. The shadows in his eyes lifted and were replaced by so much joy that it took her breath away.
“So how’s next week sound to you?”