Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 45996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
I lean into his palm, the words I have been circling for days finally finding their way out. “Jace, I love you. This whole hot bodyguard summer started with me trying to keep my distance and you charming your way past every single rule I set. But somewhere between the fake dating and the real danger, I fell. Hard. I can’t imagine going back to my quiet classroom life without you in it.”
His grin breaks through, slow and devastating, the fun loving spark returning even in the middle of all this weight. “I love you too, Sadie. I can’t really imagine my life without you in it. You turned my temporary assignment into the one thing I never saw coming. And I’m not fighting it. Not anymore.”
My throat tightens. I won’t cry. Not when he needs to stay sharp. “Then be safe. Please. Come back to me.”
“I promise,” he says, rough and certain.
He pulls me in and kisses me like the world might end and start again in the same breath. It’s fierce and tender and everything we have become. When we break apart, footsteps sound in the hall.
One of Sloane’s men stands in the doorway, professional and ready. “Miss Wells, the transport to the airport is here.”
Jace rests his forehead against mine for one last second. “Go. I’ll see you soon.”
I nod, my fingers lingering on his chest over his heart. “Be safe, Jace Hawthorne.”
I follow the man out into the humid night. The car waits under the carport, engine already running. The drive to the small private airstrip is quiet. I stare out at the dark water and the distant lights of Sunbreak Harbor, my mind spinning with everything we have survived and everything still ahead.
The flight to West Texas is long. I sleep in fitful stretches, waking to the steady hum of the engines and the ache of missing him already. When we land the next morning, the air is dry and vast, the sky so big it feels like it could swallow every worry. A ranch truck meets me at the small terminal. The driver is polite and quiet, and soon we’re bumping along a dirt road lined with fences that stretch forever.
The Coleman Ranch rises out of the plains like something out of a dream. Wide porch, weathered wood, horses grazing in the distance under a sky painted in soft morning gold. It feels like safety wrapped in open space.
The truck stops. Before I can even reach for my bag, the front door flies open and Anniston comes running down the steps, her dark hair flying, that wild, wonderful grin splitting her face.
“Sadie!”
I drop everything and run straight into her. We collide in a hug that knocks the air from my lungs. She smells like home and sunshine and every late-night secret we ever shared. We laugh and cry at the same time.
“You’re really here,” she says, voice thick. “I was so worried. But you look… happy. Even with everything. Is it him? Jace?”
I laugh through the happy tears, the sound light and real for the first time in days. “It’s him. It’s the whole crazy summer. He drove me insane and then he stole my heart when I wasn’t looking. But I’m here now. And you’re safe. That’s what matters.”
Anniston loops her arm through mine and tugs me toward the house. “Delaney has your room ready. We’re locked down tight here. And you’re telling me every single detail about falling for a Hawthorne brother. Every. Single. One.”
I let her pull me up the porch steps, glancing once over my shoulder at the endless horizon. Somewhere out there, Jace is hunting ghosts and keeping his promise. The danger isn’t gone. The story isn’t finished.
But standing here with my sister, the ranch stretching wide and safe around us, I feel the first real breath of peace I’ve had in weeks.
This hot bodyguard summer might be ending, but what we started together is only the beginning. And I can’t wait for him to come home to me.