Page 129 of Bonfire and Bliss Bookstore

“I’m in love with you, Penny. I know I fucked up. And I swear to you I’ll make it right. I’ll buy every book you ordered for the signing. I’ll fly us to meet Julie Rose in person. Hell, I’ll throw you a whole romance conference if you want.”

I laugh through my tears. “That’s ridiculous.”

“No, Xuxuzinho.” He shakes his head. “What’s ridiculous is how I treated you. How I let you believe for even a second that this was pretend. That you haven’t been the love of my life and the girl of my dreams since I knew what love meant.”

I suck in a harsh breath. “I thought you didn’t believe in love.”

“I’m an idiot. I was scared to repeat my parents’ mistakes. Afraid that if they couldn’t make it work, how could we? I was thrown off seeing them together this weekend. I caught them kissing this morning and it just—” He blows out a breath. “I didn’t know how to handle it. But I realize running from my feelings wasn’t it. That’s what my father has done and I refuse to make the same mistake. I’m not running anymore, Xuxuzinho. Please forgive me. Please let me prove that I can be worthy of you. Let me grovel. Let me love you.”

Tears stream down my face and I can’t stand the distance between us anymore. I throw my arms around his neck and inhale him. “You are more than worthy of me, Jake Montgomery.”

“No, Xuxuzinho, I’m not,” he whispers reverently into my ear as he strokes my back. “But that’s okay. It just means I’ll have to practice some more.”

“I really like practicing with you.” I sob into his chest.

“I love practicing with you. I love doing everything with you.”

I rest my chin on the spot above his heart and stare up at him. “Is this real? Are we really doing this? Are we real?”

“Yes, Pen.” Monty’s eyes crinkle as he smiles down at me. “We’re anything you want us to be. Just as long as you’re mine.”

The music turns to Billie Holiday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You” and Monty starts to sway us gently to the music.

“First Say Anything and now The Notebook?” I whisper.

He chuckles. “Why do you think it took me so long to get here? I had to use my old cassette player to burn a new playlist.”

I let out a laugh. “You’re such an old man.”

“An old man who’s crazy in love with you.”

We stare at each other with punch-drunk smiles on our faces. And outside my bookstore, on the cobblestone sidewalk, beneath the brightest stars lit by the moon, Jake Montgomery dances with me.

“I was wrong when I said your grandparents’ story was my favorite,” I whisper, as I lift up on my toes and bring my lips right beside his.

“Oh yeah?”

“Ours is.” And then I press my lips to his. He meets my mouth with a lust-filled kiss. It’s not gentle. The time for that has passed. I need him and finally I know that he needs me.

This is real. This is forever. This is bliss.

Chapter 39

Monty

“I need you,” Penny mumbles against my mouth, already pulling on my shirt as our kisses turn more urgent.

I’m not sure how I gather the strength to stop her. I’m so damn relieved that she’s forgiven me, so fucking happy that she finally knows how I really feel, that it’s hard not to let her do anything she wants in this moment. But getting naked on Maple Lane will lead to all sorts of gossip that I know she’d prefer to avoid.

“Upstairs, Xuxuzinho,” I say before wrapping an arm under her ass and lifting her in the air.

“But your boom box!” she squeals.

I grin because she doesn’t say a thing about how she’s too heavy to be carried, doesn’t try to wriggle out of my arms.

“It’s Hope Harbor.” I stomp toward the door. “No one’s going to take it.”

“True, though someone might take it to make sure it’s safe.” She laughs and the sound is like oxygen, something I can’t live without. God, I’d missed that sound. “Where did you even find a boom box?”