“Oh my god!” I lurched at him and crashed my lips against him, throwing my arms around his neck and trying not to feel the pain of the stretch in my shoulder and upper arm.
Tiller’s strong arms banded around my back and held me tight. I laughed against his mouth as his words continued to sink in.
“It’s okay?” he asked, pulling back to meet my eyes.
“You’re asking if it’s okay that you bought us a multimillion-dollar dream home in our new favorite place? That you invested in our future together?”
His body sagged. “Well, when you put it like that…”
“Of course I want you involved. How can you think otherwise?”
Tiller leaned in and pressed a kiss against the edge of my lips. “I need you to know, no matter what happens, you running this inn is a sure thing. Even if you decided to leave me one day—please don’t, by the way—this place would continue to be yours. It’s not contingent on—”
I shut him up with a kiss. My eyes smarted with happy tears. “I can’t believe it was you. You’re the one who bought it.”
He shrugged. “Honestly, part of it was selfish. If we own the inn, we can run it the way you want. And maybe that means we can hire someone else to manage it when we’re in Houston?”
The way he asked it as a question made it clear he was floating the idea of splitting our time between Houston and Aster Valley based on the season. He quickly continued. “Only for a few more years until my contract is up. After that, we can move here full-time, but I’m obligated to stay right now. It doesn’t mean you have to stay with me, but…” Tiller swallowed. “But I don’t want to be apart from you.”
“I don’t want to be apart from you either. I was going to buy a little place for us where I could run my catering business in the off-season and we could still spend the season in Houston. It sounds like we had the same idea, only… I don’t want to go back right away.”
“Whatever you want is fine with me,” he murmured, dropping a kiss against my temple. “Is it because of your dad?”
I turned my face into the familiar warmth of his neck. “My mom called to ask if I could water her plants while the family was in Galveston, I’d told her I was in the hospital in Colorado, and she’d said that was fine, she could ask Mrs. Nesbit, and she hoped I felt better soon. My father didn’t get on the phone at all.”
Tiller leaned back and pulled me into his chest. “Oh, baby. I’m so, so sorry. You deserve a better family than that.”
I thought of Moose and Jill, who’d already made themselves at home in the lodge and had gone above and beyond making me feel loved and cared for. “Maybe I can have yours one day,” I said softly.
I felt the huge grin against my head before the deep rumble of his voice hit me. “Only if one day is today. What’s mine is yours. I hope you know that. This… this is it for me, Mikey. You and me. This place. Our dreams. Together.”
My heart felt like I was going to overflow. “It’s going to be amazing. I can’t believe we own our very own lodge in Aster Valley.”
“And, ah… and the ski resort.”
I craned my neck to look up at him. “What do you mean?”
“The slopes. And the lifts. They were all part of the deal. So… congratulations? We are now the proud owners of Rockley Mountain and Aster Valley Ski Resort.” He reached his arm out toward the pristine slopes that were barely visible from this angle.
I sat up and stared at him. “You had to buy a ski resort to get this place?” My voice sounded ten times higher than I’d intended.
“I didn’t have to. But wanted to. I figured one day, when I retire, it’d be nice to have my very own place to snowboard. And I want to teach you to ski and bring our nieces and nephews here to learn, too. And between us and our new friends, I thought it would be a nice challenge for us in the next few years when we don’t have to be in Houston. While you get this place up and running, I’ll work on the ski resort. I thought we might make an attractive offer to Sam to come help us. What do you think? Want to bring the alpine industry back to Aster Valley?”
I thought of this gorgeous and cozy lodge, the impeccable commercial kitchen, the new friends who’d already welcomed us with open arms, and the old friend who’d jump into this with us in a heartbeat. I thought of being closer to Moose and Jill and having Steph and Mark’s family in our lives. I thought of keeping the house in Houston and still being able to have Tiller’s teammates over for dinner during the season.
I clapped a hand in front of my mouth to keep from squealing in excitement. Happy tears slid out of the edges of my eyes.
“Oh hell yes,” I whispered. “So much.”
Tiller’s hands cupped my face, and the expression of love on his face overwhelmed me. “We’re going to have an amazing life together, Michael Vining. You with me?”
I remembered the night we first got together in this house. The night we finally crossed the boundaries we’d tried to keep between us. “Mm-hm. Yeah. Yep. Yes. That,” I said, teasing him with my silly babbled words from that night. “I would like that. Please. Yes, please.”
Epilogue
Truman - Six Months Later
I watched Tiller throw bean bags toward a row of buckets while Mikey egged him on.
“Thankfully, you catch better than you throw,” Mikey teased. “Your contract would be worth about a buck fifty if you were a quarterback instead of wide receiver.”
Tiller shot him a look and resumed his laser focus on the festival game. I could tell the person manning the booth was less than impressed. Barney was already annoyed at having been suckered into running the bean bag toss booth in the first place, but dealing with the man Barney referred to as “Mister Moneybags” was probably pushing all of his buttons past the red zone.
I made a mental note to have a “headache” tonight. The last thing I needed was Barney Balderson pressuring me for personal intimacies when he was already in a mood. I wasn’t the personal intimacies type on the best of days, but if Barney was in a certain funk, I’d learned early on to stay away.
“If you’d let me have a second helping of egg surprise for breakfast,” Tiller complained, “I would have made the shot.”
Mikey let out a bark of laughter and pinched Tiller’s ass right as he let loose another bean bag. The missile sailed past Barney’s head, nearly knocking his driving cap off.
“Mother of pearl!” Barney shouted in disgust.
Winter Waites walked up and handed me a raspberry slushy from one of the other booths. “What’d I miss? Mr. Balderson looks like he’s about to blow a gasket.”
I sighed and turned away. “Tiller and Mikey are so perfect for each other. Don’t you think?”
Winter’s forehead crinkled. “I do. They’re very different, though. I know they spend a lot of effort making it work.”
Gentry walked up and put a soft cotton hoodie over Winter’s shoulders. “There. But if you need anything else out of the car, you’re on your own. I had to pass the entire cheerleading squad on the way to and from, and every single one of them asked me to sign their phone cases. What even is that? I wish there was still such a thing as CDs.”