She’d lied to herself about that.
But she knew exactly where he stood in the lineup. She would choose him, any day, always. Swiping the tears off her cheeks, she moved closer, her boots crunching on the snow. “Hi.”
“Hi.” He looked at her with a self-deprecating smile while a light gust of wind playfully ruffled his snow-glistened hair. “I thought maybe you might need an Uber or tech support.”
Though his tone had been light, his eyes were anything but. “Maybe I just need you,” she said.
He studied her. “I’d like to think that was true, but you don’t often let yourself need anything or anyone.”
“I know. I was an island, and I was good at it.” She shook her head. “But coming back here this time, bonding with Charlotte, my grandpa. You . . .” She held his gaze this time. “Being alone doesn’t hold the same appeal anymore.”
“Good,” he said. “Because you’re not alone. I’m standing right here.”
Her own miracle. “You came for me.”
“I’ll always come for you. But you should know that I lied about the Uber and tech support. I’m here because I forgot to tell you something pretty important.”
“What?”
He straightened up from his truck but still didn’t touch her. “I love you, Jane.”
Her entire body softened. In fact, she nearly melted into a puddle right there on the icy ground. Stepping into him, she slid her hands up his chest and around his neck. Drawing in a breath, he hauled her in closer so there was no space between them. Then he kissed her, revealing everything he felt, not hiding a thing, telling her with his mouth, his touch, the way his body held hers that she really was the love of his life.
Just as he was hers. “I left something out too.” She drew in a deep breath, because here went everything. “You said it was real for you. I need you to know it’s real for me.”
His eyes searched hers, dark, serious. Intense. “From when?”
“From the moment you showed up at my work with my grandma’s locket. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be a good partner for someone. The way I grew up, the way I led my life . . . Before I met you, I never even considered it an option for me. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I had it in me to fall in love. I’m still not sure how it happened.”
He made a low sound that said it hurt him to know she truly had believed herself incapable of love, and she shook her head. “But a part of me knew from that first night on the mountain that you would change everything.” She cupped his face. “I love you too, Levi.”
He let out a breath like he’d been holding it for just that. Looking touched, marveled, and relieved all at the same time, he gave a low laugh.
“You didn’t know?” she asked.
“Hoped. Suspected. But no, I wasn’t sure.”
“I really was going to Haiti,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“I’m not now.”
He rubbed his jaw against hers and nodded. “But even if you had, it wouldn’t have changed anything for me.”
“Me either.” She burrowed into him. “Thank you for loving me, Tarzan.”
“You’re easy to love.” He kissed her again. His lips were cold, and she realized he wasn’t even wearing a jacket. “You’re freezing!”
“Left in a hurry. Jane, there’s one more thing.”
Her heart stopped at the seriousness in his voice. “Okay . . .”
“I bought a piece of land near the Tahoe Rim Trail.”
She blinked. “Where we—”
He smiled. “Yeah. I think of you every time I drive up there. I’m going to build a house. I’d like it to be our house. Our home.”
A home. That belonged to her and that she belonged to. A permanent place . . . with him. Her heart swelled so that she wasn’t sure how it could possibly still be fitting inside her rib cage. “I’ve never had a house.”
“I know.”
“A home either,” she said. “Though Charlotte’s place is getting pretty close.”
He smiled. “So you’ll have two now, though I hope you’re going to sleep in ours.” He tipped her face up to his. “I’m not telling you this to put any pressure on you or to tie you down in any way. I’m just letting you know. I want you to be mine, Jane. But more than that, I want to be yours, on your terms, however that looks. If it means seeing you during ski season when you’re here working, or if it means flying to visit you wherever you happen to be, I don’t care. I just want to know that we’re each other’s person.”
She stared up at him. “You’d really have come to visit me wherever I was working?”
“Even if it was Mars.”
For some reason, this got her in the feels more than anything else he’d said, and she shook her head. “You deserve more than having to follow me around. And plus, I like the idea of a home base, taking shorter and fewer contracts. And I think I’d like to transfer from the urgent care clinics to the actual hospital. It’s better shifts and more stability.”
He was already shaking his head. “Don’t do that for me, Jane. I don’t want to change anything about you.”
“I’m doing it for me,” she said. “Because I need more of us than a visit here and there. You are my person, Levi. And I’m yours.” She took his hand. “You could stay with me until your place is ready. Unless you’d like to keep sleeping on your parents’ couch?”
He grinned. “So I’ll be a kept man. I like it. Don’t worry, I’ll put out as often as you like.”
She laughed. “How long can I keep you?”
He cupped her face. “How does forever sound?”
Her heart turned over in her chest, exposing its underbelly. “It’s a date.”
Epilogue
Five years later
Jane staggered down the stairs, plopped into a dining room chair, and did gimme hands toward Levi’s coffee mug.
He slid it to her.
She sipped, grateful it was still steaming hot. It also had more cream than coffee, which meant . . . “You made this for me.”
There was a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Sleep well?”
She smiled, scooping up Cat, who’d been winding around her ankles. “When you finally let me go to sleep.”
Levi flashed a grin. “I don’t remember hearing any protests.”
“Not a single one.”
In response to this, he hooked a foot around the leg of her chair and pulled her closer.
Miffed, Cat jumped off, and Levi scooped Jane into his lap, pulling her in for a heart-stopping kiss that had her melting into him.
“Ew.”
They broke apart and looked over at Nicole, their four-year-old daughter, who with the exception of Jane’s own green eyes was the spitting image of her daddy. Their daughter was still in pj’s, wearing—if Jane wasn’t mistaken—syrup. A quick glance around the kitchen told the tale. Waffles had been made. Messily.
“Why do you and Daddy kiss so much?” Nicole wanted to know.
“Because we love each other.”