Once she’s dressed, she sits on the bed beside me. “What is it?”
I press my lips into a thin line. “It turns out my grandma is going to give us a large sum of money tomorrow after the wedding. She’s referring to it as a nest egg. I’m going to give it to you as a thank you and for you to invest in the inn.”
“Noah, no.” She shakes her head adamantly. “That’s your family money.”
“I want to, and I figured you’d be excited. At least you get something out of this.”
Her expression turns soft, and she takes my hand. “I got a lot out of this. And business will pick up eventually. We’ve made some great improvements. I’m not worried.”
I look deeply into her eyes. God, I cannot imagine being even a five-minute drive from her—how the hell am I going to handle being hours and hours away?
“Please let me do this for you. As a thank you for giving up so much for me.” I tuck a piece of her fiery hair behind her ear.
“Noah, I—”
“What?”
She hesitates, then shakes her head. “Nothing. You better go before my sisters get here. They’re planning a whole night of bachelorette fun.”
“I thought we said no bachelorette?”
“It’s just them sleeping over honestly. Probably baked me a penis cake or something.” She rolls her eyes good-naturedly.
“I can’t remember what it’s even like to sleep without you.” I kiss her forehead.
“I know. I guess we have to get used to it though, right?”
Neither of us smiles. I wish I knew what she was going to say a moment ago, but at this point, what does it matter?
The doorbell rings downstairs, and I take her head in my hands, drawing her lips to mine. I kiss her with everything I feel in this moment. How scared I am for this to end. How much I’ve enjoyed our time together. How I can’t think of a better person in the world than her. And when I close the kiss, her cheeks are pink and she’s heaving for a breath.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I kiss her one last time and she leans in, hugging me.
“Tomorrow,” she mumbles before inhaling deeply.
“What is this?” Nikki screeches from the doorway. “Nope. No way. You have her for the rest of your life, we get her tonight.”
We break apart and our gazes remain on one another until Nikki pulls me out of the bedroom.
“Bye-bye, Noah.” Nikki waves and slams the door in my face.
How can I already miss her? And what the hell am I going to do when it’s time for me to leave Alaska?