Without You

Our kiss was filled with so much love that I could feel it moving between our bodies.

I got an idea. “Can I take you somewhere, Lex?”

She smiled. “Are you going to take me to heaven and back again?”

I grinned. “How about later? I don’t think my guy can recharge that fast.”

She pushed my chest and laughed. “You can take me anywhere. First, will you hand me my bag, please?”

I got up, reached for it, and handed it to her.

She began taking her jeans and T-shirt out. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere special,” I said with a wink.

“Will, it’s so beautiful here,” Lex said as she looked around.

It was a bit chilly, so Lex was wearing one of my A&M sweatshirts. She looked beautiful, all swallowed up in it. Her shoulder-length brown hair was swept up and piled on top of her head with a few strands hanging down. Her blue eyes looked like diamonds sparkling when the light hit them in just the right way.

I took her hand and walked us over to a bench overlooking the pond. The sun would be setting soon, and the sky was turning an orange-pink color. I sat down, and she sat next to me.

“The time we were apart, I would come here every day, sometimes twice a day, while I was running.”

She squeezed my hand as she looked at me.

I looked at her. “I did a lot of thinking during that time, and I know you did, too.”

She nodded her head and smiled. I began playing with her promise ring. When I had come home for Christmas, I had never been so happy when I looked down and saw it on her finger. Since then, I’d wanted to ask her if she’d ever taken it off.

“Did you ever take this off, Lex?”

She glanced down to her ring and then back up to my eyes. “Never. Not once.”

I smiled and placed my finger on her chin. I pulled her closer to me to kiss her. My lips were still touching hers when I whispered, “I love you so much.”

She smiled. “I love you more.”

I laughed and looked out over the water. The sun was sinking farther in the sky. I took a deep breath and got ready to do the one thing I’d been dreaming of since I was ten years old.

I turned my body and faced her, and she did the same. I took both her hands in mine and began rubbing my thumbs back and forth across the backs of her hands.

“Lex, I remember the first time you looked at me and smiled. Right then, I felt something happen. I swear, I was only ten. In that moment, I knew that I wanted you to be mine. The way you smiled at me used to literally take my breath away.” I chuckled. “Hell, it still does.”

Lex sniffled, and I saw a tear rolling down her face. I reached up and wiped it away. She smiled at me, and my heart soared.

“I know your daddy loves you, and I want to do this proper and all, but I also want this moment to be just you and me. I want it to be a moment that is only ours and no one else’s.”

She let a sob escape her throat.

“Lex, I love you so much. I never want to be apart from you again. I can’t breathe without you. When I think of my future, I only see you in it. I want to make love to you every day. I want to take long walks on the ranch with you and watch you fuss over Banjo. I want to see you coming toward me in a beautiful white dress before I take you somewhere amazing for our honeymoon. I dream of holding children of our own in my arms and watching them grow up to love the ranch as much as we do. I have so many dreams for us, Lex.”

She started crying, and my voice cracked. I had already bought her engagement ring a few weeks ago. Originally, I had planned on asking Gunner for her hand in marriage and then formally asking her when we all went to the coast this summer.

“Lex, will you marry me and be my secret fiancée?”

She started crying harder, but then she started laughing. She threw herself into my body. “Yes! Oh God, Will, yes, a thousand times.”

She pulled back, and I placed my hands on the sides of her face.

I whispered, “You’re mine,” and then I kissed her.

She smiled. “Always.”

“Promise me,” I whispered.

A tear slid down her face as she whispered, “I promise you, Will.”

Will pulled up to the hotel where Grace and I were staying this weekend and parked his car. I smiled, and I couldn’t wait to tell him that I had a separate room from Grace. His face had fallen when I told him Grace had come along so that we could check out A&M. I had a sneaky feeling that Grace was hoping to run into Noah again, but she’d told me I was nuts for even thinking that.

“Maybe you should go back to your dorm and pack up some clothes and your books.”