Page 159 of Whirlwind

I tugged on his shirt, yanking myself from his sinful mouth. “How…how can you tell me that now after just one week together?”

“You and I started a long, long time ago. I don’t give a fuck about measurements. What I feel for you can’t be measured with numbers. It’s beyond that, it’s in here.” His hand hit his chest. “Weare way beyond that, and you know it. Oh, baby, you’re going to miss me, like I’m going to miss you.” He planted my forehead with a kiss. “I already do, dammit.” His voice was rough, full of ache, and tore through my chest splintering there.

We unraveled. A gentle touch that dropped away. A few steps. More steps. Distance. A hand raised in the air. Beck Lanier was swallowed by the crowd on a long stretch of hallway.

Gone.

My stomach dropped. My chest caved. People jostled by me, bumped into me.

“Sorry!”

“Excuse me.”

Where was I?

Airport. New York. Going home.

Beck just told me he was falling in love with me.

The most glorious thing that had ever happened to me.

A glorious disaster.

I found a monitor listing Departures, and I trudged to my gate. I knew what waited for me in Meager, and it wasn’t pleasant. Ladd and his engagement strategy. Me hanging on to Whisperwind, Dad and Anna Jeffries drama, keeping Powder Ridge free and clear of Ladd’s petty schemes and ambitions until we got to that auction which everything was hinged on.

My gaze fell to the remarkable amethyst ring on my hand. By the time I got off the plane in South Dakota, the world would know that I was engaged to Beck Lanier.

My hand curled into a fist, the ring digging into my flesh. What the hell was I going to do now?

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