His thumb moved away from my lips, and the words tumbled out. “I love you.”

Simon leaned against the fence and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. A smile stretched across his face, and his eyes met mine.

“Welcome home, Charlie. I missed you.”

He pulled his hand back through the bars and reached for a button to open the gate. As soon as there was enough room, I left my bags on the sidewalk, slid through the gap, and launched myself at him.

Simon’s strong arms caught me and lifted me off my feet. I wrapped myself around him. This man was mine, and I was never letting him go again. He pressed his lips to my hair, and whispered, “Missed you so fucking much. Not letting you out of my sight for a goddamn year.” My only response was to hold on tighter.

When he finally set me down, the lightheartedness left me, and my expression turned serious. “How’s your mom? Is she going to be okay?”

Simon’s smile didn’t fade. “She’s going to be fine. A lot of therapy, but she’s going to be just fine.”

“And your decision not to campaign … was that because of me? Because I—”

Simon cut me off. “No. I’d already decided that before the Fourth of July. You just didn’t stick around long enough for me to tell you about it.”

Heat flared up my cheeks. “I knew if I wanted a chance with you, I had to make things right.” I looked down at the ground and the toes of my ratty Chucks. “It just didn’t exactly work out like I’d planned.”

“If Ivers had gotten to you before—”

This time I cut him off. “It wouldn’t have made a difference. It needed to happen this way. I definitely could have lived without setting foot in Rikers, but at least people are getting back what they lost.”

Simon scowled. “Like I said. Not letting you out of my sight.”

The front door swung open, and we both turned toward the sound.

Simon’s father stood behind his mother’s wheelchair. She smiled, her face still slightly askew, but she lifted a hand and waved. Mr. Duchesne called out, “Welcome home, Charlie. Maggie would like to invite you to lunch. Nothing fancy. Just family.”

I smiled as a lump rose in my throat. Just family. Their easy acceptance humbled me. And I knew I was truly home.

“I’d love to.”

Simon pressed another kiss to my hair, and whispered, “I love you.”

I threaded my fingers through his, and we walked hand in hand toward the house.

I parked across the street from Harriet’s and turned to Charlie.

“When I said I wasn’t letting you out of my sight, I wasn’t kidding. If this is where you want to stay tonight, you’d better be ready for some company.” I hoped she realized how serious I was. After more than six weeks apart with nothing but questions and unknowns between us, I wanted us on the same page when it came to our future. I knew what I wanted—Charlie in my bed every night, with my ring on her finger. My store of patience had run dry. After facing the possibility of losing her, I wasn’t going to rest until I’d locked down forever with this woman.

She looked up from beneath her dark lashes and shot me a saucy smirk. “Since I wasn’t planning on letting you leave, that works for me.”

I reached for my door handle, but Charlie was already out of the car and crossing the street. What the hell was her hurry?

Impatience or anxiety or something else I couldn’t quite identify had been rolling off her since she’d asked me to bring her back to the apartment after dinner. As much as I’d wanted to tuck her into my bed, I hadn’t argued. Strangely enough, she’d suggested leaving Huck curled up at my mother’s feet. Something was up, but I had no idea what. With Charlie, it could be anything.

When I climbed out of the car, she was already shoving her key into the ancient lock. “Excited to see Harriet?” I asked.

She smiled and held open the gate. “You first.”

“What’s going on here?”

She bit her lip, unsuccessfully holding back a laugh. “Just roll with it, Simon.”

I leaned down and brushed a kiss across her hair. “Only for you.”

I walked through the narrow passageway into Charlie’s garden oasis and stopped dead. Dozens of fat, white pillar candles sat on the table, the edge of the fountain and koi pond, on the ledges of the brick walls, and around the splash pool. The yellow flames flickered in the evening breeze.

I spun in a slow circle, taking it all in. A romantic gesture from Charlie. I liked where this was headed.

“How did you manage to pull this off?” I asked, finishing my circle just as she tugged her black T-shirt over her head and dropped it on the ground. The best sort of déjà vu rushed through me.

“Harriet. And she was kind enough to give us some privacy.” She reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. It dangled from her fingertips for a moment before it landed on her shirt. She was so goddamn beautiful she stole any other thoughts straight out of my head.

I watched with pure male appreciation as she toed off her Chucks and reached for the zipper on her jeans. She shimmied them off as she said, “Last time I tried this, you told me to let you know when I was ready for more than a quick fuck.”

She exposed the pale, white skin of her legs as she kicked her jeans and panties aside, and I fought to follow her line of conversation. “I remember saying something like that.”

“This is me telling you, without a single reservation, that I want more. A whole hell of a lot more, Simon. I want it all. With you.”

My heart hammered at her words and the sight of her before me. Naked in every way. No walls. No masks. No secrets. No lies. Just Charlie. My inked, pierced, beautiful Charlie.

My already wide smile stretched further. “That’s convenient, because I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”

She tilted her head. “An answer to what?”

I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt the ring that I’d been carrying around since yesterday morning. After my grand airport reunion plan had been derailed, I told myself I was going to wait. That I wasn’t going to do this tonight. That I was going to let her settle in for a few more days before I brought it up. But for some reason, I’d kept the ring in my pocket anyway. And I was glad as hell, because I couldn’t let this moment pass without asking.