Page 66 of More Than This Land

“I thought…” He trailed off, unable to articulate the terror that had gripped him when he’d seen her car on the side of the highway. The way his mind had conjured images of twisted metal and shattered glass despite seeing it whole and unharmed.

“I’m okay.” Her fingers tightened on his wrists, anchoring him. “I promise. The car’s not, but I am.”

He pulled back enough to see her face. Dusk softened her features, but every detail stood out to him. The small scar above her left eyebrow. The way her lower lip was slightly fuller than the top. The way her hair framed her face when she left it down and how he kept wanting to touch it even though it was just hair and it shouldn’t be so enticing.

Beautiful. She was so beautiful it hurt.

“What are you doing here?” She ran her hands down from his wrists to his elbows, her body swaying toward him.

He slid his hands from her face to her shoulders, then down her arms and back up again. If his heart raced any faster, he should enter it in the derby. Heat crept up his neck, flushing his face, but he didn’t look away. She might not even see it thanks to the setting sun.

“I was coming to find you.” The confession was scraped out word by dangerous word. “I was driving to Billings to find you.” He stopped. Swallowed hard. And started again after a quick inhale. “I was coming to tell you that I love you.”

Claire’s breath caught. Her fingers spasmed at his elbows, and this time when she swayed, he brought her flush against him and slid his arms around her waist.

“I love you. I’ve been a coward and a fool. I’ve been so scared of losing you I pushed you away. Even when I tried to get you to stay, I didn’t give you the right reason to want to. I need you in my life, Claire. I need you so much.”

A series of short sniffles and her grip tightening on his arms gave him hope.

“I don’t care if it’s messy.” He rested his chin on her shoulder and whispered into her ear. “I don’t care if it’s uncertain or if I can’t predict what happens next. You’re worth the risk. You’re worth my perfectly ordered life falling apart. You’re worth everything, and I want you to stay with me. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving you made the right choice.”

She kissed him.

One moment he was talking, and the next her mouth was on his and her hands fisted in his shirt and every coherent thought he’d ever had scattered in every direction. Yes. This. He’d known kissing her would turn his life on its head, and he was right.

The kiss was everything he’d imagined and nothing like he’d expected. Soft and fierce and desperate and gentle all at once.

She tasted like coffee and mint and coming home.

When they finally broke apart, Claire kept her forehead pressed to his. Her hands had moved from his shirt to his face, thumbs stroking along his jaw while her eyes searched his.

“I turned down the job.” The words came out breathless to match the blush in her cheeks. Her fair complexion didn’t hide the color like his tan did. “I couldn’t take it.”

He’d heard the phrase ‘lighter than air’ before but never had it applied to his life the way it did now, with Claire saying all the things he’d prayed for.

Her hands trembled against his face. “I’ve been waiting for you to give me a guarantee. Some promise that if I chose you, it would work out, and I wouldn’t lose you the way I lost my parents. But that’s not how it works, is it?”

“No.” He rocked his forehead side to side against hers. “It’s not.”

“Faith means loving anyway.” Tears spilled over now, tracking down her cheeks. “Trusting anyway. Staying anyway. You’ve been trying to show me that for months, and I’ve been too scared to see it.”

Luke caught her tears with his thumbs, his own eyes burning. “I was coming to Billings to beg you to stay.”

“I was coming home.” A laugh bubbled out of her, watery and wonderful. “I was coming home to tell you I never wanted to leave.”

The wind picked up around them, carrying the smell of sage and wild grass. Above, the sky deepened from orange to violet, the first stars beginning to appear. A semi passed on the highway, its wind wake buffeting them, but neither moved.

“Tell me what happened.” He took her hands in his, needing the contact. “In the interview. What made you realize?”

Claire drew a breath that shuddered slightly. “I want to build a life, not a career. And I can’t build a life in Billings when my heart is in Covenant Creek.”

Luke pulled her close again, tucking her head under his chin. “Noah said something last night. He said I was afraid you’d pick your life over me, which meant I’d decided I wasn’t worth the choice.”

“You’re worth it.” Her arms tightened around his waist, and the feel of it pushed out the last of his fear. “You’re so worth it.”

“I sat in your driveway last night trying to talk myself out of coming after you. Telling myself I should respect your decision. That if you wanted to go to Billings, I had no right to ask you to stay.”

They stood wrapped in each other while the last light faded from the sky. Cars passed occasionally, their headlights sweeping across the prairie, and prompting Luke to take a step back. “We should probably deal with your car.”