Pax’s eyes drifted to where Leah sat. “Beg. You get on your goddamned knees and beg. You apologize, and you explain. At this point, it’s not even that it happened, it’s that you hid it from her. That they hid it from her.”

“She’s everything to me,” I said quietly.

“Yeah. I know just how you feel. Grab on tight, because knowing Rachel, you’re not in for an easy time of it once she knows. You’d better just pray that she loves you enough not to cut your ass off.”

I watched her laugh with Leah and cursed myself. Why hadn’t I told her? Found a second to lay it all out? Because you knew it would destroy her, one way or another.

“It’s not fair. No matter what I do, she’s going to hate us both. She’s never felt like she was enough, you know? The way I left her…I don’t know how to mend that tear I put there, and this will just rip her further apart.”

“You’ve got her cornered here, but I’m not sure I want to see her go ballistic in a contained environment. She’s liable to take down the plane.”

The captain’s voice came over the intercom. “We’ve begun our initial descent into Los Angeles. Flight attendants, please ready the cabin for landing.”

“Or I guess now you just pray,” Pax said. He must have seen my general look of dismay, because his shoulders slumped. “Look, man, she loves you. It’s written all over her damn face. You two are a force of nature, and anyone or anything who steps between you gets crushed—believe me, I know. What happened was over two years ago. It’s in the past. You just show her that you are there for every day of her future, and she’ll forgive you. She might not forgive them, but that’s between her and them.”

“Yeah. Thanks, man.” I sat back and watched LAX approach, so lost in my own thoughts that I barely noticed when Rachel took Pax’s seat. Her small hand slipped into mine, and she squeezed.

As the plane touched down, she kissed my cheek. “Welcome home,” she said with a smile.

I turned and held her face, wishing I could pour all of my love into her, that I could somehow make everything perfect. Then I kissed her, praying that she remembered everything I’d told her in Fiji, that we were stubborn enough to see this through—that it was always our decision to make us work.

“I was already home,” I said against her lips. “My home is wherever you are.”

She smiled, and I felt like the biggest bastard on the planet.

We deplaned on the tarmac, where there were cars waiting to take us to our homes. “Want to share?” I asked.

“I know you need to get home. It’s okay. You go, and I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, right?”

“Right,” I told her, kissing her again because I could—because I was terrified that it might be the last time. “I love you, Rachel. I know we’re home, and that things back here are…different, but no matter what your parents say, or me leaving for Aspen, that doesn’t change.”

“I know,” she said. “Stop stressing. You’re acting like me.”

I laughed. “Maybe I just hate thinking about sleeping in an empty bed.”

She wound her arms around my neck as her bags were loaded into the car behind her. “Well, it’s only for a couple weeks. Then maybe when we’re back on board you can sleep in my bed.”

“Or you can sleep in mine,” I offered.

“After you burn the sheets, ban the camera crew from the suite, and get a new mattress,” she said with a quick grin and a kiss. “I love you.”

“Done deal.”

I gathered her to me, kissing her like my life depended on it, memorizing the feel of her lips, her lavender-and-peppermint scent, her gentle sigh in my ears. I’d tell her tomorrow at dinner.

As long as they didn’t tell her first.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Rachel

Los Angeles

“You sure you don’t need help with these, miss?” the driver asked as he handed me my suitcase.

I handed him twenty dollars in return, the feel of American money almost foreign in my hand. “I’ve got it. Thank you for bringing me home.”

A minute later I walked up the landscaped steps to my front door. The lawn was still manicured, but something was off about it, same as the drooping flowers. Wait…where was the Christmas wreath?

I fumbled with my keys but got them into the lock, turned, and opened the door. “Hey, guys! I’m home!” I called as I hauled my suitcase into the foyer.

“Rachel?” Mom called out before she came skidding around the corner in her socks. “You’re home!” She engulfed me in a hug and her chocolate-chip-cookie scent. “I’m so glad you’re here! How are you? How was your flight?”

I laughed and hugged her back. As amazing as the trip was, I’d really missed her. “I’m glad, too. I’m fantastic, even better than that, and it was good.”

She pulled back, examining me like she was going to find a pod person under my skin. “You’re smiling. Everything is good with the boy?”

“Landon, Mom, and yeah, he’s…” I sighed. “He’s absolutely wonderful.”

Her lips pursed, but she didn’t dig in. “Okay. Well, your dad isn’t home yet.”

I blinked. “It’s eleven p.m.”

She forced a smile. “You know how things are at work right before the X Games, and since they’re sponsoring again this year…”