He just hoped she loved him enough to agree.

* * *

Mitch shifted beneath Simone, and she tensed, then relaxed when she realized all he was doing was kicking his jeans away from his feet.

“You’re not thinking of leaving me like you did last night, are you?” she asked.

He buried his face in her hair and breathed deep. “Not on your life.”

She smiled and relaxed against him, snuggling in closer to his heat. When she shivered, he rolled her to her side and added, “But I don’t want you to freeze. Since I don’t happen to have my magic backpack with me right now, hold on a second.”

He sat up and grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and a pillow from the armrest. Shoving the pillow under his head, he lay back down on the soft carpet, then wrapped his arm around her again, pulling her into the crook of his arm as he spread the blanket over their entwined bodies. “Better?”

She sighed, hooked her leg over his, and rested her hand on his chest, then relaxed back into him, loving the warmth of his skin and that this was a thousand times different from last night. “Definitely better. I like your magic backpack, but I like this more.”

Outside, wind and sand and rain whipped against the house, but inside, it was warm and safe, everything Simone wanted. With her head on his chest, she could hear the beat of his heart, and unlike last night, his still-fast pulse didn’t do anything but reminder her that he was alive. And not going anywhere without her, at least not anymore.

They lay still together in silence, his fingers tracing a lazy path up and down her forearm on his chest as he watched the flickering flames in the fireplace, her just relishing that there was no more tension between them.

“What are you thinking?” she finally asked.

For a second, he didn’t answer, and though she couldn’t see his eyes, there was a faraway look on his face, one she didn’t like. Was he thinking about where they would go next? She had some thoughts, but she wasn’t sure she should bring them up yet. Though she was pretty sure that was their only option at this point. Neither of them had found anything in Steve’s boxes.

“I’m thinking I’m hungry. Like really hungry.” His brow lowered, forming the cutest wrinkle between his eyes, one she wanted to kiss from his face. “When did we last eat?”

“Um…breakfast. Ryan made pancakes.”

“That you didn’t eat.”

No, she hadn’t, had she? She’d been too upset. “I’m pretty sure I saw pasta fixings in the pantry.”

His stomach rumbled as if on cue, and his smile widened. “I think that’ll work.”

Reluctantly, she disengaged herself from his body and reached for his shirt on the floor. It hung past her thighs, but it smelled like him, and right now if she couldn’t be in his arms, she wanted at least something of his around her.

He tugged on his jeans, and she pushed her sleeves up, then pulled the two halves of his flannel shirt together and began buttoning it from the bottom up. His hand captured hers before she could get the last three done, and he pulled her around. “Leave those open. I’ve missed those breasts.”

Her whole body tightened at the heat she saw brewing in his eyes, and when he leaned down and kissed her, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him back with the same intensity, the same passion. God, how could she have ever thought she could walk away from this? She’d been so stupid. So incredibly, shitacularly stupid. But she was going to make it up to him. No matter what it took, no matter how long, she’d prove to him how much she needed him, even if it took the rest of her life.

Her muscles were quivering by the time he pulled away, her body lax and close to overheating. As she licked her lips, still tasting him, he smiled down at her and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, the move so tender, so intimate it felt like her heart turned over in her chest. “Show me where that pasta is.”

Pasta. Right. She could do that. Not him. Though she planned to do him again, several times, before this night was over. All part of her not-being-afraid-to-need-him plan.

She turned for the kitchen. “I’ll grab the noodles, you find a pot.”

She rummaged around in the pantry, and when she came back with sauce and spaghetti noodles, he’d already set a pot on the stove to boil. Sliding off her bracelet so she wouldn’t get food on it, she set it on the counter, pushed up his sleeves that had already fallen down her arms, and dumped the sauce in another pan to heat.

Mitch found two beers in the fridge, popped the tops, and handed her one. While she fiddled with the burners, he picked up her bracelet and leaned back against the counter, crossing his feet at the ankles. “I always meant to ask you why you wear this and not Shannon. That’s her name, isn’t it?”

Simone glanced at the gold Hawaiian heirloom bracelet engraved with Shannon’s Hawaiian name, Kanona, on the outside. “It is. It was a Mother’s Day gift.” She stirred the sauce in the pan with a wooden spoon and shrugged. “Well, a belated Mother’s Day gift, I guess you’d call it. Steve took Shannon and me to Hawaii on a last-ditch family vacation about three years ago, and they gave it to me there. I guess I wear it because Shannon loves to see it on me. She helped pick it out. Thing’s heavy, though.”

He turned the bracelet over in his hand. “What are the numbers on the inside? Near the inscription?”

Simone glanced at what he was reading. The inscription was clearly visible: To Simone with love from Steve and Shannon, but the numbers, tiny numbers engraved just past those words, were ones she’d never really noticed. “I don’t know. A serial number or something.”

Mitch turned the bracelet and looked at it closer under the light. “He gave this to you just before he died?”

“Um…a few months, yeah. The trip was kind of a surprise. Why?”

Mitch lowered the bracelet. “Where’s the laptop Ryan gave you? I want to look something up. Can you handle the food without me?”

Unease slithered through Simone. “Yeah. I guess. The laptop’s in my bag, in the bedroom at the end of the hall. Why? What are you looking for?”

He slid his fingers into her hair and kissed her temple. “Nothing, I’m sure. I’ll be right back.”

He disappeared down the hall, and as Simone worked on dinner, she told herself whatever he was looking for wasn’t a big deal. But her mind skipped back to the day Steve had given her the bracelet, and his words, which at the time hadn’t made her think he was feeling anything other than sad about leaving her and Shannon when he passed.

“This is for you, and Shannon, and the future. Remember how we traveled. Keep it close and think of me.”

Mitch came back into the room with a cell phone pressed to his ear. “Yeah. Thanks.” He hit End and stared at her. “I got it.”

“Got what?”

He waved her bracelet. “The numbers. It’s a storage unit in Mill Valley just outside the city.”

Simone’s brow dropped low. “What do you mean? It’s not an address.”

He stepped around her and flipped off the stove, and as he moved the pasta to a cool burner, she realized it had been about to boil over. “Not an address. Longitude and latitude. I’m not sure what these other numbers are—I’m guessing maybe access codes or unit numbers or something—but I’m pretty sure Steve left you the exact coordinates where he stashed his evidence.”

“What?” Simone took the bracelet from his hand and stared down at the small numbers. “Are you sure?”

He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her into him. “Sweetheart, I know longitude and latitude, trust me.”

Remember how we traveled. Steve had been telling her where to look, and she hadn’t even realized it.

She glanced up, and when he grinned, she felt her own lips turn up just a touch. “We can go get it.”

His smile faded. “Not tonight. The storm’s pretty bad, and regardless, I think our safest bet is to get whatever it is in the light of day, just in case.”

“You’re worried someone could be following us.”

The same worried look she’d seen when they’d been basking in the after-sex glow in front of the fire flashed in his eyes but faded quickly. “I think it’s just safer if we play things cool. No reason to go running off in the middle of a storm if someone is watching, you know?”

She nodded. Though she didn’t like the thought of someone watching them in any way, it made sense. But part of her wanted to get whatever it was right now and get on with their life.

The smile spread back over her mouth, this time filling her with excitement and hope. Real hope. She slid her hands up his shoulders and around his neck. “You know what this means, don’t you? It means this can finally be over.”

She rose up on her toes and kissed him, and he held her tight, kissing her back with the same passion. Burying her face in his neck, she drew in a whiff of his masculine scent and fingered the bracelet behind his head. She’d had it all this time, the key to everything, and hadn’t even known.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It means it’ll finally be over.” He was silent for a moment, then added, “You know, there’s still something I need to tell you.”

And there was still something she needed to tell him too. Or, rather, ask.

She drew back and looked up at him. And where there had been fear before, now there was only love. “Will you marry me?”

“Wh-what?”

She smiled, because it wasn’t rejection she heard in his voice but surprise. The sweetest kind of surprise. “Marry me. As in, for better or worse, though I think we’ve had enough worse.”