Page 129 of Colt

He nods at the notebook on my bedside table. “Can I ask what you’ve been working on?”

I whip my head in his direction. “Whoa whoa whoa. Since when do you not want to light all my ideas on fire?”

Rolling onto his side, he lifts his free shoulder. “It’s a recent development.”

“Tell me more.” I grab the notebook.

“Not to get too into the weeds here, but…I don’t know. I’m starting to think that maybe shaking things up a little might be a good idea.”

I blink at him. “Can you say that again? Just so I can be sure I heard it correctly. Because when we first met⁠—”

“I was the worst. I know. I was wrong. Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

His smile is back, and it takes my breath away. “You’ve been the best surprise, Lainey Brown. In ways I never anticipated. I’m still terrified of fucking up the legacy that’s being passed on to me.”

“Sounds like the kind of fear that might never go away.”

“Right.” He looks at me for a long beat, searching my face. “But if I can be honest about my fears—if I can find some semblance of acceptance that change is just a part of life—then maybe I can, you know, actually live it.”

The man is actively trying to get me to fall in love with him. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why he’d say these things.

Why he’d be so open-minded after shutting me out the day we met.

“I like that idea. Acceptance.” I page through the notebook until I find the sheet I’m looking for. “It’s so hard not to wish things or people were different.”

He leans in to see the page, brushing my arm with his lips. “Who do you wish were different?”

“My parents, obviously. I wish they were happy. Or that they’d choose happiness, because right now…” Sighing, I shake my head. “It’s just sad.”

“That’s rough. Hard to be around, I imagine.”

You beautiful bastard. Of course you’d get it.

“Very. Especially when I’m the only one who seems to notice…well, anything that happens in our family. My brothers—I mean, I love them, but they’re⁠—”

“Different from you.”

Yes. “Yes. Probably need to accept that fact too.”

“Probably.” Colton nudges me with his knee. “Easier said than done. Something I’ve been working on for, oh, thirty years now.”

“Ew, you’re old.”

“I prefer ‘experienced.’”

“It’s cool to see your parents’ relationship, though. They seem happy.”

Colton sighs, his warm breath making my arms break out in goose bumps. “Dale and Paige aren’t perfect. But yeah, they still dig each other after however many years together. I wish I knew what their secret sauce was.”

“Everybody changes. Maybe…I mean, I obviously don’t know your parents all that well, but maybe they were just honest with each other through everything. Maybe they were best friends from the start who could talk to each other about anything.”

Colton’s Adam’s apple works on a swallow. He presses a kiss to my arm. “I like that idea. Being honest. Not sweeping shit under the rug.”

My heart twists. “Never too late, you know.”

He doesn’t reply to that. Instead, he grabs the corner of my notebook in his hand. “Wanna keep doing it?”