All My Heart (Count On Me Book 4) (21 page)

The address on the page, I’m not familiar with it. I can’t say that I find that surprising considering how protective my mom was about letting me go out before I moved over here. There aren’t a lot of places I’ve been to unless it’s been with Eric and his parents so the excitement I had over finally learning where I’d be going tonight starts to fade.

Folding up the paper and sliding it down into the pocket of my pants, I focus my attention on the present. When I see the words across the top of the page and the two names that come directly after it, I’m floored.

It’s the deed to Kayden’s house, or at least the paperwork needed in order to change the occupants listed on it.

Kayden Walker is listed at the top in heavy block lettering and directly underneath it is my name. He’s applying to have me listed on the deed to his house.

His home.

Our home. 

Running my eyes down the page, I catch sight of the sticky note filled with Kayden’s print.

Welcome Home Isabelle Reagan.

“Oh my god.”

I don’t know what to do with this. My mind is going a mile a minute thinking about what it all means.

It might seem strange to some people, but for me, from the moment I realized what I was feeling for Kayden
, I’ve always just known that I want to spend the rest of my life with him.

He’s
said a few times that he’s loved me since he was three or four and even though that seems crazy, with the way we grew up together, how close I remember being in the memories I do have of that time, it just makes sense. The way we are now is an extension of what we were then and it’s the most natural thing in the world.

As natural as it feels to want a life with Kayden in the future, seeing my name listed on an application for changes to his house, it’s scary. It’s like bringing the future into the present and even though I don’t have a lot of ex
perience with relationships, I do know that if you move things too fast it usually doesn’t work out.

The last thing I want is for what I ha
ve with Kayden to end. For us to move too quickly and end up split apart a few years from now. When I say that I can see him in my future and that I want forever with him, I mean it.

Welcome Home Isabelle Reagan.

As scary as it is seeing those words, it’s also heartwarming. What he’s doing giving me this, it’s him letting me know in actions, not words that he wants us to be together forever.

Live together in this house, our home, for the rest of our lives.

It’s the most beautiful way of showing me how he feels that he could ever do aside from maybe getting down on one knee and proposing, but even thinking about taking a step like that right now makes my throat constrict. I want a future with Kayden. I’m determined to have one, but not by bringing the future slamming into our present.

Looking away from the paper and glancing at my watch, I realize that my time is almost up. I’ve got a little less than two hours to be at the address he gave me on the back of the paper.

That’s what I need to focus on right now. Signing these papers, making this final, it’s going to have to wait. My need to see him; stand in front of him and tell him exactly what everything he did today means to me, that’s where my focus needs to be.

It’s time
for me to give Kayden his gift. The only thing in the world left that I can give him since he already has the rest of me so completely.

I just hope that when I get there, it’s a gift he’s going to
be ready to receive. One that he’ll want. I’m not sure what I’ll do if he doesn’t.

Risk for reward, Isabelle.

Chapter Nineteen

Kayden

I dated a lot of different girls before Belle came back into my life.

I’m pretty damn sure every single one of them would have killed for me to act the way I am right now because it would have meant that they weren’t inconsequential. They would have felt special, like they mattered.

The sad reality is, they didn’t matter because when I dated them, I didn’t matter. My life at home was a mess, my attitude was in the toilet and I just didn’t give a fuck about anything or anyone. I was lost in translation.

Everything is different tonight. I’m not lost anymore. I’m not drowning the way I was a year ago, desperate for saving. I’m whole. Complete. And it’s all because of her.

It’s been hours since I set up the scavenger hunt and it’s taken every ounce of my self-control not to bend, caving in completely and calling her.

With everything that’s happened with Dean, finding out about my mom and seeing her outside that hotel room, I’ve changed and there’s no
way Belle hasn’t noticed. I’m just thankful that she was asleep the last night we were together.  She didn’t witness the way I reacted when everything finally hit me.

There’s been one constant with me the entire time we’ve been together.
I’ve always been the strong one. The protector. Breaking down, crying the way I did, it’s like a gigantic crack in that armor I’ve built so solidly around us.  It’s a moment of weakness, which isn’t wrong, but it’s a way I never want her to see me.

Protecting Belle, being there for her in ways that no one else can, it’s what I’m meant to do and the thought of all of that changing if she knew just how hard I’ve been taking everything lately is too much. It just can’t happen. This is one change I don’t want.

Hopping up onto the trunk of the car, leaning across my knees and staring out toward the boardwalk, I soak up everything going on around me while I wait for Dillon to text and tell me that they’re on their way.

When I w
as here before, there were a lot more people walking the boardwalk. It’s slower now, more serene, which really does make it the perfect night.

I’ve got her. We’re on our way.

My heart stills reading his words, but before I can acknowledge the way it feels knowing she’s close, another text comes through and seeing it stirs something new inside of me.

The deed to your fucking house? Holy shit Kayden.

The only way for Dillon to know about the house, with me leaving it out when I was putting everything together, is for Belle to tell him. Knowing that she shared it with him when he picked her up, it’s intense.

It’s an overwhelming feeling of rightness. Even if Dillon thinks that what I’ve done is the stupidest move in the world, it doesn’t change anything for me. My life right from the second my mom walked me over to
the Reagan house has been joined with Belle’s. That’s what the paperwork for the house is about. Making sure our lives are joined now the same way we were then.

Forever.

Get my girl here in one piece, Dill.

Hey Grandma, stop worrying. Your girl is safe with me.

Not if you keep texting.

After a few seconds of silence, where I finally allow myself to believe that he’s put his focus ba
ck on the road where it belongs, another text comes through.

Dillon had one job. Pick my girlfriend up and get her here in one piece. Texting back and forth when his focus needs to be elsewhere is starting to piss me off.

At least it is until I see the words on my screen.

I love you, Kay. <3

Belle. Not Dillon. And just like that, my imagination settles and my heart rate evens out until it’s a slow steady drumming with only the slight alteration of jumping every time I think about seeing her.

Dropping down off the back of the car and fishing my keys out of my pocket, I unlock the trunk and pull out the only other thing I’m gonna need to make this night perfect.

The original plan was to walk the boardwalk, but somewhere along the way that changed. It expanded until the only way I could see this happening at all was to have it this way instead.

I want to spend my anniversary here on the beach with Belle, wrapped up in her, falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing into the sand and
the stars shining above us.

I want to take her on a walk to remember.

Gripping tightly onto the blankets I grabbed earlier and tossing them inside the bag, I slam the trunk closed the minute headlights turn onto the street and start making their way closer. Coming around to the front of the car, I wait until it pulls up beside me and comes to a complete stop, the door opening, preparing to finally give me what I’ve waited all day to have.

Belle here with me.

Belle

When I exhausted every available option in terms of a ride, I finally gave in and called the only other person left.

With as easy as it was for me to call Dillon when I wanted to go to Toronto, calling him for this felt strange. It became even stranger when I caught what sounded like excitement as he eagerly said yes.

It all began making sense when he showed up at the house to get
me after only a half hour of waiting. This wasn’t strange or weird anymore. It was planned.

After trying for the entire drive to get him to tell
me where we were going and getting nowhere, I finally gave up and resigned myself to being patient and waiting the way I’m sure Kayden wanted me to.

Surprises really suck.

It’s only when he pulled onto yet another street that he reached over and squeezed my shoulder, letting me know that he understood.

“Have you figured out where I’m taking you yet?”

“No. Should I have?”

He smiles and where I expect him to speak he just nods.  Before I can ask why I should know, the car slows to a crawl and comes to a complete stop. Looking toward him, he motions with his hand out the window and as I turn, I see why.

Standing under a lone street light is Kayden, complete with a bag around his arm and a smile that reminds me of the one Dillon gave me a few seconds before.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Can you let him know I drove like an old lady in or
der to get you here?”

“Why do I need to do that?”

“Because he said if I didn’t he’d cut my balls off and I’m pretty sure you know why I don’t want that happening.”

With a laugh and a squeeze of my hand
, I wrap my fingers around the door and push it open, making sure as I do that the seat belt has been completely pulled away from me. As I’m about to close the door once my feet have touched the ground, I hear Dillon call out again.

“Happy Anniversary, Belle.”

Smiling before shutting the door, I turn and come in direct contact with Kayden as he wraps his arms around, pulling me into him. His scent the first thing I’m hit with after I feel the spark that runs through me the minute we touch.

Standing completely still until Dillon’s headlights become dots in the distance
as he backs out, Kayden moves first, turning my body forward before coming to rest behind me, one arm draped completely around while the other one points out into the distance.

“Do you
see it?” He asks and following, I see clearly what he’s talking about.

The beach. The sun lowering in the distance and the moon starting to rise, casting a
n orangey red hue through the lower part of the sky. The faint traces of stars already visible even though the sun hasn’t completely gone down.

It’s beautiful.

“I see a lot of things, Kay.”

He laughs and brings his other hand down to rest until they’re both locked securely around me.

“You wanna know a secret?”

“Sure.” I
whisper before pulling my eyes away from the view in front of us and letting my gaze fall on him and the way his eyes look, softened and focused solely on me.

“All I see is you.”

Before I can respond, his head lowers until his lips are brushing softly against mine and for the first time since I woke up today, everything feels complete.

Whole.

“Come on.” He says as he releases his hold around me, sliding his hand around and under until our fingers are linked together. “As much as I want to stand here and kiss you all night, there’s something else I want to do more.”

Keeping pace with him, I take in everything going on around me as we finally leave the street and find ourselves on the long wooden boardwalk
that spans out for miles in front of us.

“Why did you want to bring me here?”

“Do you remember when I brought you to the park for lunch? The way you reacted once you got out of the car?” I nod and he continues. “You’ve always loved being outside and I wanted to do that for you again, but someplace we’ve never been together.”

He doesn’t realize it, but it’s more than just a spot we’ve never been together. I’ve never been here at all. With my mom keeping me close to home, we never made the trip down here and seeing it now, especially at night, I’m so glad we didn’t. I want this to be something only Kayden and I share.

It can be the one thing that’s just ours.

“Have you been here a lot?”

“Not since I was a kid.”

“I’ve never been here at all.”

Where we’d been walking along and talking, he stops and my body pauses with him. Pulling his hand from mine, he lifts it up and wraps it around me, pulling me into him until we’re connected again. It’s only when we’re as close as we can get that he leans in and speaks again.

“You’ve really never been here before now?”

“Never.”

“Then I’m really glad I did this.” He places a soft kiss to the top of my head before starting to walk again, my body gliding with his effortlessly, both of us locked in a comfortable silence as we continue moving and taking it all in.

“You wanna hear something weird?”

“Kay, nothing you say could ever be weird.”

“Fine. Do you wanna hear what I just thought about?”

“Of course.”

“You see how the boardwalk just seems to keep going? Like from where we’re standing right now, it looks like it will never end?”

I let my eyes roam further down the path un
til I see exactly what he mean. A never ending wooden walkway that even with the fading of the daylight seems to run on forever and I nod in understanding.

“
That’s how I feel about us. We started out in one place when we were kids, like we did when we started back there,” he says before using his free hand to point backwards. “But we just continue moving along with no real end in sight. We go on forever.”

“Kay…”

I have no words for what he just said and for him to think that it’s weird is crazy. I used to think that no one understood weird like I did because of my differences, but I’m not even sure I know what weird is anymore. I do know this is definitely not it.

What he’s said, it’s beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful and I’m not even sure I can find the words to tell him that because looking at this boardwalk and thinking about it in terms of us, made me speechless.

“I know. It’s cheesy right?”

“No, it’s not. It’s not weird or cheesy or whatever word you’re gonna call it next.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. What you said, it’s sweet.”

“So that means you’re blushing right?”

When I first got with Kayden, I was amazed at the way my body would react to him. Whenever he said anything sweet, I would blush or smile almost wistfully, his words always touching a part of my heart that I didn’t even know existed, but as time goes on, I’m no longer amazed. I’m starting to see now what was so shocking then.

The Kayden effect.

It’s present now just like it always is. Where I hadn’t felt the flush
or the heat rise to the surface the way I have before, it does start to rise the minute he mentions me blushing. I’m reacting to him.

“I am now.”

“Well, let’s see if I can make it go even deeper.” He laughs before leaning even closer, running his thumb across my overheated cheek, before whispering so low that only I can hear him. “I want to walk this path with you someday. I don’t care if it veers off in another direction or ends completely. It will be okay because I’ll be with you. Where it ends will be where we begin again.”

Tomatoes aren’t as red as I am. I can tell because where I was already reactive before,
having Kayden this close, I’m on fire and he’s the only one that can put it out.

“Did it work, Belle? Are you ten shades of crimson yet or do I need to keep going?”

The blush goes deeper still and lowering my head slightly, not wanting him to catch just how deeply he’s affecting me, I nod my head and I feel his chest expand against my body as his laugh and contented sigh escape.