“I love you.” The words just rolled off my tongue. I’d never said them to him before, and while it was a little scary to put myself out there in that way, I didn’t feel an ounce of regret at them slipping out when he was being genuinely loving and caring.

He hugged me closer to his body and then pulled back so he could look me in the eye. “I want to be mad at you for stealing my thunder, but I can’t because I don’t want to go another day in my life without hearing you tell me those words.”

“I stole your thunder, huh?” I asked as my fingers dipped into his hair in order to tug his mouth closer to mine.

“You did,” he told me before helping and coming in for the kiss I was asking for. Our lips met and opened, tongues twined, and we got lost in one another for long enough that our audience of one was gone when we finally came back up for air.

“I didn’t have a meeting today,” Tucker admitted as we broke apart. I stiffened slightly while sitting there in his arms, on his lap, and having just told him that I love him for the first time. “I went to finalize something, and it seems like this is turning out to be the perfect day for it,” he told me. “Will you come somewhere with me?”

I nodded and together, we got up and left the apartment after he grabbed my purse for me along the way. Neither of us spoke as we got in the car and drove away from the city. I was only slightly worried that he hadn’t said he loved me back. While I wanted him to say it, I didn’t expect it. Everyone got to that place on their own time, and maybe he just wasn’t there yet. I settled in the car, deciding I wasn’t going to overthink it as we drove.

Tucker reached across and took my hand in his as we made our way further out of town and into a beautiful neighborhood. I grew far more curious as we left the neighborhood behind and ended up in front of a gorgeous piece of land that was fenced in with an imposing mix of brick and wrought iron. He punched in a code at the gate and continued our drive to the most gorgeous house I’d ever seen. It reminded me of an old plantation style home with the columns holding up the porch that seemed to wrap all the way around the house.

He parked in front of the house, in the over-large circular drive, and once we were both out of the car, he took my hand again and pulled me along to the house, where he used a key to gain entrance. There was a path of rose petals along the hardwood floors. We followed it through the house, out a back door, and into the most insanely gorgeous back yard I’d ever seen. It had a pool, an exquisite area for cooking out, and plenty of places for children to run and play too, including the intricate swing and fort set off to the side near the trees that lined that portion of the property beyond the fence.