Page 90 of Escape from the Green

"Breathe, honey," Drake demanded, giving my hair a playful tug. "They will be here eventually."

"I miss home," I admitted, leaning into him.

"We've only been gone a few hours."

"A few hours too long. Your mom is probably scrubbing the shine off her floors right about now."

"She's a mom. She worries. It comes with the job title."

"Kieran looked like he was barely able to hold himself back from charging ahead with us."

"He understands his responsibilities now."

"You don't need to feel guilty about his choices, Drake," I told him, not having found the right opportunity to do so before even though I knew it was something that had plagued him since his return to find his friend stuck in a lifetime role he hated.

"I am the only reason he joined the council."

"His love is the reason he joined the council. And that passion is exactly the reason he belongs there. They need that. His youth. His open-mindedness. If not for him, Foren and Borena would get their way all the time. He is a challenge. He is balance. It will serve the greater good for him to be there. He will see that eventually, even if right now all he can see is his own pride. You can help show him how valuable his choice is. What?" I asked when his smile went soft.

"Nothing, honey. I just..."

"Just what?"

"Love you," he declared, shaking his head at the declaration.

The first one.

We'd loved.

Shown love.

Given love.

But the words always stuttered and stuck on our tongues.

My heart seized and swelled in my chest, as close to bursting as possible.

My smile was immediate, big enough to make my chest hurt.

"I love you too, Drake," I told him, meaning it more than I ever meant anything.

"Sunflower," he murmured, making my brows draw together.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, sure I misheard him. there were no sunflowers around, wouldn't be more months still.

"Sunflower in a tower," he told me. "That was what I used to think of about you when I watched you up in your room. "Always bright. Always beautiful. Happy-looking. But you weren't happy. Now, now you look happy. Now you're my sunflower."

"But no more towers for me," I told him, snuggling closer. "I much prefer our little house with the lumpy bed and the drafty shutters.

"I'll fix the shutters," he told me. "I would have gotten to them last night but someone kept distracting me."

I had been waiting all day for him to get in from helping some of the others chop firewood. The moment he came in the house, I had jumped him, clawing frantically at his clothes until I got his skin bared to me, taking him in my mouth, then letting him pin me to the wall, taking me from behind until I came four times, the last time loud enough to wake everyone all the way back in town.

He never got to the shutters.

And I was okay with being a little chilly in the morning if that was the reason for it.

"Well, when we get back, you have a few days to fix them up before I start... distracting you again."