Page 90 of While the Sun Shines

Oh, fucking hell that feels good, her fingers dancing through his hair.

“Well, I gotta rewrite my entire whiteboard anyway, thanks to Cooper, so I’ll just leave space for your work schedule too.” He tugs her a step closer, her arms folding between them, the trophy brushing his chest. “I want to make cheese. I’m better at it than farming, and that drives me nuts and is mortifying and I kind of hate that it’s true, but it is. If Coop and Whit want to, I told them to think about it, but they can farm. Just run the entire show, handle the damn sheep and probably do it better than I can anyway.”

“You are pretty good at making cheese,” Penny says softly. “Are you really in this with me? Day in and day out, when you’re busy and stressed out and when you’re not? Because I want your time. And your attention.”

“You’ve got it, Pen. You should’ve had it this whole time but you’ve got it now and I’m going to do better.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m so sure. I can—Penny, whatever you want. I can—I’ll even learn Spanish if you want, if that’s important to you. I’ll—”

“Please,” she says. “Let’s not overpromise, okay?”

“I could, really.”

She laughs softly. Smiles and touches his nose with the tip of the trophy. “No, you literally can’t. But…but the rest of it…okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah.” She sniffs. Then, she smiles. “Yeah, okay.”

“Really?”

“You better not fuck it up.”

“I’d fuck up every single block of cheese I’ll ever make to get it right with you,” Drew says and pulls Penny into him, the trophy hard against his ribs. He cups the back of her head and squeezes her. Kisses her hair and whispers, “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” she says into his shirt.

Oh. Oh. Drew’s waited so long—so, so long—to hear that. And it sounds…wow. Amazing.

Softly, she whispers, “Let’s go home.”

Drew unlocks the Jeep. And like she has a hundred times, a thousand, she climbs up into the passenger seat. Pulls the seatbelt across herself, clicks it in place, and pushes her hair back when it slips into her face.

Slowly, he gets into the driver’s seat. Turns the engine on. Remembers to shut his door only after he’s shifted into reverse.

The lights are on in Caroline’s house as they drive by, and when he pulls into the barnyard, one of the hens is out, strolling past Sadie, who thumps her tail at the sight of them.

He slips out of the truck and holds the door to the house open for her. “You coming inside?”

But Sadie stays where she is, slumping back into her spot on the grass. Gently, Drew shuts the kitchen door behind Penny. The house feels empty. Quiet and still and peaceful, so utterly normal with the mail on the table, Cooper’s work gloves on the seat of a chair, coffee cups sitting in the dish drainer.

All of it like they left it just hours ago, but now he can wrap his arm around Penny’s waist, bend down, and smile at her. Penny smiles back and he pulls her close and—fuck. He can kiss her. Just lean down and kiss her smile.

So he does. Cups her cheek in his hand. Kisses her softly once, and then twice, and then tips her face up farther and takes her lower lip between his.

Penny curls her hand behind his neck, holds him there and kisses him back. Hard and searching and oh. Oh, they’re really kissing. Her mouth opening under his, her arms around his neck, the press of her body against his.

Her eyes are dark when he finally pulls back.

“We can take it slow,” he says. “Figure all this out.”

“Or we could go upstairs.”

Blood rushes to Drew’s face. Down south, too. Oh lord, he’s not going to survive this. “Yeah. Or—or that.”

She laughs when he ushers her up the stairs. They creak like they always do, unaware of the momentous change in his life. Impossible, that everything can just continue as Penny turns on the top step to kiss him again. The cows out in their pasture, the sheep still stubbornly in the barn, the hay lying wet and ruined in the field.