Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,81
everything. I wanted her bright open smile, the thoughts that went through her head. I wanted her early morning primal need for coffee, and her discomfort with being alone in big spaces at night. I wanted her triumphant grin when she beat me at cards, and the way her eyes shone when she laid the truth out for me, asking me to acknowledge it. I wanted everything she was and whatever she would become, and it felt like it would be the greatest privilege I’d ever enjoyed just to have her permission to be at her side.
Harper broke off the kiss with a sound between a laugh and a sigh, and I caught her eyes with mine, not wanting to let her go.
“What about your curse?” she asked, still holding my gaze.
I shook my head slowly back and forth, my eyes never leaving hers.
“Is it broken?” she tipped her head to one side, a little smile playing on her lips as her arms tightened around me.
“I don’t know,” I said.
She smiled and released me, stepping back to put a little space between us, but taking my hands in hers. “You saved my life tonight,” she said. “Matilda and Sequoia too.”
I frowned at the overstatement. “Who’s Sequoia?”
“My puppy.” She wrinkled her nose at the distraction, then went on. “What if saving someone reverses the curse? Now I’ll never die.”
“Don’t joke about it.” I didn’t like talking about the worst things that had happened in my life to those I loved. “But maybe…” I trailed off, thinking. “Maybe you’re right. And maybe not. Maybe we just get the cards life deals us and sometimes we get a few in a row that are hard to handle.”
“And some that help you win,” she added. “Though I still intend to kick your ass later.”
“I’ll enjoy that,” I told her. She took my hand then, and pulled me to the dance floor, throwing one hand over her head and shaking in a small circle before stepping close to me again. Prior to this night, I would have taken any bet that had me dancing to ABBA and won it easily because there was no chance it would happen. But for Harper?
For Harper, I was willing to put aside a lot of the things I thought I believed about myself. For Harper, I was willing to find out who I really was. Who I could be if I just let myself.
And as we laughed and danced, I let my eyes roam the crowd out there on the wide open deck under the stars and the huge red trees around us, and my heart felt like it might balloon right out of me. My sister and Connor were laughing together, Maddie sitting on his lap with her arms around his neck. Chance and Mike were turning in a circle on the dance floor next to us, Finn doing the Floss at their side as Sam and Miranda stood behind him, trying to do the move themselves and failing. Ranger George and his wife were dancing too, next to Frank and Adele, and for a minute I worried about the movie we were supposed to be making because Tuck had Annie Gish spinning in a circle on the dance floor too, their faces glowing with smiles. Most of the guys from the crew had been invited, and they stood in clumps near the buffet and the bar, smiling and talking, relaxed and apparently happy.
Even Craig Pritchard looked happy, though he still sat at the table where he’d been eating. I caught his eye over Harper’s head and for a long minute he just watched me, dancing with his daughter. Finally, he nodded his head, and reached out one hand, showing me a thumbs up, which I took to mean I had permission to do what I did next. I twirled Harper back into my side, her blond hair flying around her and then settling over her shoulders. I brushed the hair from her face, took her in my arms, and leaned down to kiss her again.
Chapter 22
HARPER
The end of the night of Maddie’s wedding was kind of a blur—a happy blur. Cam and I danced and laughed, and everywhere I went, he was nearby, never really letting me out of his sight. Since we hadn’t gotten to really talk—or at least, I hadn’t—I was sure he was keeping me close in case I decided to leave again, but I had no intention of wandering away now.