She snuggled closer. “Thanks for having my back. Again.”

“I always will.” I kissed the top of her head. “Even if you don’t need me to.”

She tilted her face up and smiled. “I might not always need you, but I’ll always want you, and that’s much better.”

I held her close. “No more worrying about whether this is real or not, all right?”

“It’s real.” She rested her head on my shoulder and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck. “No matter how fast or unconventional, we are one hundred percent the real deal.”

I nuzzled her, loving the fact she smelled of my soap. She belonged here, and we belonged together. “Stay with me tonight?” I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.

She smiled, and it was so beautiful that my insides flipped over. “I’ll stay every night with you, if you’ll have me. But I’m keeping an apartment too. At least until you’ve taken me on our first date.”

I chuckled. “You got it, sweetheart.”

It didn’t matter when she moved in. All that mattered was the fact she loved me and one day, I’d make her my wife.

But for now, we could take it as slow as she wanted. We had all the time in the world.

Epilogue

Willow

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” Ronan undid the blindfold so slowly I had to resist the urge to tear it off myself.

He’d insisted on keeping the destination of our date secret. I’d tried to guess where we were going based on how many turns the car took, but I wouldn’t have put it past him to have intentionally taken a detour just to put me off. Impatient as I may have been, there was something sweet about that.

The fabric fell away from my eyes, and I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.

We were in Dad’s office, and it was like we’d stepped back in time. It was decorated exactly as it had been when he was alive, down to the row of vintage guns. I scanned them, recognizing each model. Remington, Winchester, Savage, Smith & Wesson.

Tears burned in my eyes. Ronan had replicated my father’s office, and I could have sworn I felt his presence in the room with us.

“I can’t believe you did this,” I whispered. “It’s perfect. But how did you remember everything?”

He tapped his head. “Good memory. This place meant as much to me as it did to you.”

I went to the desk and ran a finger along it. I hadn’t been into Lennox Securities for months. I’d known Ronan was keeping it as a satellite office, but after everything that had happened, I’d preferred to stay away and focus my energy on King’s Security’s social media presence and my own art. I’d started a side business selling my paintings. It was slow, but it kept me happy.

“This is where we talked for more than a few minutes for the first time,” he said, curving a palm around my face and brushing his lips over mine. “I found you in here, crying about some stupid boy who didn’t deserve you.”