His hands went on her arms, one gliding up her shoulder to stroke her throat before he tucked a lock of her hair behind an ear. “Thought you didn’t see visiting each other working out that well,” he said.
“I was wrong.” She turned her face into his palm, planting a kiss in the center of it, over his rough calluses. “I was very wrong, about a lot of things actually.” When she met his gaze again, his had grown warm with so many things her throat clogged. It seemed like forever since he’d looked at her like that and she melted as he pulled her to him and kissed her long and hard.
“Missed that,” he said, voice rough. “Missed you, Colbie. So much.”
She tugged him down for another kiss and then another, after which they were both breathing heavily. She had her hands fisted in his jacket, every cell in her body alive and singing as he nuzzled her temple, then placed a kiss at her jaw. “You going to tell me what else you were wrong about?” he asked.
“You already know.”
“Sometimes it’s nice to hear.” His mouth brushed her earlobe as he spoke and she clutched his arms to get a grip.
“I have a terrible habit of running away,” she admitted. “And apparently I come by it naturally.” She shook her head. “I thought it was my brothers who needed to grow up. Turns out it was me too. I left you because what I felt for you scared me.”
“And . . . you’re not scared anymore?”
“No, I’m still scared. Terrified,” she conceded. “But I’m more terrified of losing the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You mean writing in San Francisco?”
She choked out a laugh. “You. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Spence.”
He cupped her face and pressed his forehead to hers. “Right back at you,” he said with quiet steel.
She gripped his wrists. “Tell me I didn’t screw up so badly with you that you’re not willing to give me another try.”
“Are you kidding?” he asked in disbelief. “I’ve made plenty of mistakes too, especially when it came to you. So let me show you how willing I really am.” He let go of her to fish in his pocket for his phone, bringing up his boarding pass. To New York.
She stared at it. “You were coming to me?”
“Tomorrow morning,” he said. “It was the first flight I could get. I’d forgotten to tell you something.”
“What?”
His thumb swiped over a few tears she hadn’t realized she’d shed. “That I love you,” he said with no hesitancy. “I told you, Colbie, I’m playing for keeps. I know that this thing between us scared you and I can give you whatever you need: time, space, patience . . . I can give you all of that and more, but what I can’t do is let you walk away.”
“I love you too,” she said, and at the words she didn’t know she had in her, butterflies took flight in her belly.
“For how long?” he asked.
She stared at him, confused by the question. “How long am I going to love you? Seriously?” Unable to find the words for that, she shook her head, marveled, boggled, because somehow, in spite of themselves, they hadn’t managed to screw everything up. “So to be clear, we just decided to be together . . . right?”
“Right.”
Could it really be that easy? “And about living three thousand miles apart?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I like New York.”
She blinked. “But you own this building here in San Francisco.”
“I could buy another.”
“But you love this building,” she said. “You built yourself an entire community and made it home.”
“Funny thing about that,” he said with quiet intensity. “I thought I needed to create a physical home for myself. I thought that’s what home meant. Turns out it’s not a physical space at all.”
“No?” she asked, hope filling her chest.
“No. See, home is wherever you are.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “Oh, that’s good. I need to write that down—”
He laughed while she fumbled through her big bag for one of the note cards he’d sent. She scribbled down the words and then stilled, looking up into his face, realizing he was waiting out her special brand of crazy. Quickly, she shoved the note back into her purse. “You’re pretty amazing, you know that?” she asked softly.
He smiled. “Thanks for saying so in front of our audience.”
She looked around. They were alone, just as Finn had told her they would be. “What audience?”
Heads silently popped up from behind the bar. Finn. Pru. Sean. Willa and Keane. Elle. Archer. Joe. Molly. Kylie. Haley. Caleb . . . They all waved.
“Carry on,” Sean said. “Don’t mind us.”
Colbie laughed and turned back to Spence. “So . . . a few months in San Francisco and then a few in New York? Or vice versa?”
“I can go either way,” Spence said. “What I can’t go either way on is being without you.”
This was met by a thundering applause and accompanying cat whistles. They were all sitting on the bar now, sharing bottles of champagne, starting without them.
Spence bowed and then grabbed Colbie’s hand and pulled her in close.
She stared up at him, needing to know. “Are we really doing this?”
“Yes.” He kissed her jaw, her cheek. The tip of her nose. There was a smile in his voice, but his eyes were serious. “So let me ask you again,” he said. “For how long?”
She closed her eyes for a beat, savoring the feel of him against her. How long? Was he kidding? Forever and ever would maybe do it. “I guess until you get tired of me.”
He gave her a slow, sexy smile. “I determined on day one that I was never going to get tired of you.”
“Never ever?”
“Never ever,” he repeated, sliding a hand through her hair to tip her face up. “Think you can handle that?”
“Oh yeah.” She kissed him, knowing she was never going to get tired of him either. Never ever.
Epilogue
One week later, New Year’s
The lights came up in the movie theater but Colbie couldn’t tear her eyes off the screen as the credits rolled.
Screenplay adapted from the novel by CE Crown
When the words scrolled by, the audience went nuts and Colbie beamed.
“So,” Spence asked at her left. “What did you think?”
“She loved it!” her mom exclaimed from her right, squeezing Colbie’s hand. “Right, baby?”
Colbie couldn’t talk. This was her second time seeing her book come to life and it was no less amazing. It’d been an experience of a lifetime and she felt like she was floating.
Behind her, Kylie and Willa were practically bouncing in their seats and thrust their faces close to Colbie.
“It was terrific!” Kylie exclaimed. “Better than terrific! Five stars! Both thumbs up!”
“Yes, all of that,” Elle said next to them. “But it wasn’t as good as the book.”
Colbie’s heart felt full to bursting as she shot Elle a smile of thanks. “You all liked it? Really?”
Everyone nodded emphatically, and she did mean everyone. Her brothers and mom had flown into San Francisco the day before to celebrate New Year’s Eve and to get a feel for Colbie’s new home.
All of Colbie’s new friends were there too. The girls and even the guys. Finn, Sean, Keane, Archer, Joe, Caleb . . .
The entire gang.
All of them there for her. She felt her throat get tight.
Spence met her gaze and as usual read her without effort. He pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her. It was sweet, even if she could feel his chest shaking with his low laugh. “Cute,” he said in her ear. “You’re cute. And amazing. I love you so much.”
She looked into his eyes. He’d flown her family out here, for her. He’d rented the theater out for the movie, for her.
His work world was going a million miles an hour this week but that hadn’t stopped him from being here for her. In fact, he was flying to Europe for several weeks tomorrow to deliver the drone prototypes and he’d convinced her to go with him.