Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,71

hair falls in curls down her back where a gray sweater dress wraps around her curves. The swell of her ass, the skin on her bare legs … they’re distracting. But I keep my eyes up, my head straight. I’m on a mission.

“Neither. I’m here for a Ferris wheel ride.”

At my voice, Presley’s back straightens, and she turns, her green eyes wide.

She doesn’t speak, so I ask again, holding my hand out. “What do you say? Join me?”

“I-I’m working here,” she stutters.

Lily jumps in. “No, I’ve got it. You go take a break, you’re due anyway.”

“I got here half an hour ago.” Presley scowls at her.

“It’s not even busy! I can handle it. You go have fun.” Lily practically pushes her out of the booth.

Once she’s standing out in the grass with me, stripped of her duties, the nervous energy sparks between us.

“Shall we?” I start to lead the way and breathe a sigh of relief when she follows.

We climb into the Ferris wheel car, and I have to focus on the fact that I have her in this death trap for the next twenty or so minutes, completely alone. I have to say what I need to say.

The bar closes over our laps, and déjà vu moves in swiftly. It might not be the exact same Ferris wheel, but it’s in the exact same spot in Bloomsbury Park, and my jean-clad leg is touching hers, and the nervous energy flowing through my veins almost matches that of the first time she agreed to go on a date with me.

“So, you wanted to take me up here?” Presley looks at me as the car rises.

I dive right in. “I chickened out the other day on Main Street.”

Confusion marks her expression. “What?”

“I was coming over to tell you that … I was an idiot. I was selfish. I was hurt and confused and just wanted it all to stop so I took the easy way out by ending us. But, you need to know. I love you. More than any of the other things that consume my life. I was a coward and a moron, I should have never let you go. I should have told you I’d be here, that I’d wait while you figured your feelings out, instead of running like a scared boy. I’m ready to be the man you can count on. I’m in love with you, Presley.”

We stop at the exact peak of the wheel, and I internally high-five myself for having the foresight to slip the teenage ride operator twenty bucks yesterday. I needed to manufacture a little bit of this, just to make sure it went perfectly.

It wasn’t every day you needed to grovel for the love of your life.

She sucks in a gasp, and I want so badly to touch her, but I know I have to give her a minute.

“I knocked on your front door that night fully intending to tell you that I was in love with you.” Presley’s green eyes are open, vulnerable.

Shock pulses through me. “You were? Wait … you love me.”

She gulps, and I watch her elegant neck during the motion. “I love you, Keaton. I know I had to work up the courage then, just like I do now. I’m so sure of it, and yet I’m scared out of my mind. I’ve never loved someone this much. Loved someone with so much of me that I’m fighting my instinct to run with every fiber of my being.”

“I don’t want to change you.” I lace my fingers through hers.

Because truly, I don’t. If staying here, with me, for me, is that painful for her … I’ll break my own heart again to set her free.

“Well, see, that’s how I felt in that moment at your front door. I was fighting that instinct. But now, I barely feel it at all. You ended things, and that gave me the clarity to see that this is the place I belong. With or without you, Fawn Hill is my home.”

Something else clears from the fog in my brain that took over when she said she was in love with me.

“You were coming to tell me you loved me, and I ended things.”

Presley looks away, out over the setting sun on the horizon, and nods. When she looks back at me, a single tear escapes her eye.

Instantly, I pull her into my arms. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I … I freaked out. Everything with Fletcher, it overwhelmed me. I hadn’t