Page 17 of A Night With You

I roll over onto my back and look up at the ceiling as the early morning light slips in and the bed groans. Aubrey’s already up and she leans over and kisses my cheek. "What are you thinking about?"

I fold her under my arm and cuddle her close. She's warm all through the night. I never thought I was missing out, sleeping in my own bed with nobody else, but it turns out I was. It's a hell of a lot better with her.

"I was thinking it's lucky that this town talks."

She snorts, a cute little sound that makes me crazy about her every time I hear it. "What do you mean?"

"We got to skip a lot of little steps and get right to the good stuff."

Aubrey laughs louder. "Is that what you call sex? The good stuff?"

"Nah.” I swallow down any worries and just say it, “But falling in love is the good stuff."

I knew from the minute she walked into the bar that night that I was falling for her. It took a little time to realize it for everything it was, but now that I have, I know--I've felt that all along. I've never fallen slowly for Aubrey Peters. It happened the second I saw her, and it'll never stop. Those years we spent apart were just a detour. It was time we needed to see that something was missing in our lives, and it was each other.

It was never going to be right without her.

It never will be right without her.

After a minute, Aubrey pushes herself up on one elbow and looks down at me, her hair falling in a wave down to my chest. She studies my face like it's one of her editing jobs. Aubrey always pays attention to the smallest details, and when she looks at me like this, I know she can see everything about me.

And she doesn't mind looking.

"Bennet Thompson," she says, a tremble in her voice. "Are you saying you love me?"

"I think I am, Aubrey Peters."

Aubrey bites down on her lip to keep herself from smiling even harder. Her cheeks flush pink. That blush on her is so gorgeous it makes my heart stop. I want a photo of this moment. Maybe a hundred of them, or a painting--something that I could keep forever so I never forget this exact shade.

Then again, I don't think I'll be able to forget. There's a certain clarity about Aubrey. Everything she does locks into my brain, and it's just like it was back in school. I can't stop thinking about her.

"Well," she says, seeming almost shy about it. "I think I might love you, too."

I push her hair back from her face and tuck it behind her ear. "I know you love me."

I'm sure of it. Aubrey Peters loves me. From the way she kisses me and the way she talks to me and the way she sleeps next to me at night, she's loved me all this time, too.

I let my hand curl around the back of her neck and run my thumb over her cheekbone, my heart picking up. I don't have a ring, and I don't have a plan. Aubrey deserves both. She deserves the entire world.

But with the way she's smiling at me now…

"You want to maybe change your name one day?"

"Oooh." She wrinkles her nose, smiling bigger. "Big steps, not baby steps there."

"I'm just asking what your timeline might look like… I’m not booking the honeymoon to Maui just yet." Because I'd marry her tomorrow, if I could. Hell, I'd marry her right now. I'd go and bang on the door of the courthouse until they opened up and declared us husband and wife. I can picture that, too, just like it's playing out in a movie. Aubrey in a white dress, me in a suit, our signatures on a sheet of paper, a last-minute ring on her finger…

That would be good enough for me. It might even be good enough for her. I don't know, because I haven't asked her, but I'm going to, just as soon as–

"Change it to what?"

I blink back up at Aubrey, and...her face is different. She was grinning before, laughing, but now she looks serious.

"What do you mean?"

“What’s your name?” Aubrey’s voice is softer than before, almost like she’s not right next to me, in my arms where she belongs.

“What? What’s my name?” I ask her and a chill comes over me when she stares back at me with red rimmed eyes and a quivering lip.