“You will,” he vowed, and gripped my hands to stop me. “You will be mine. But I’m trying to do this the right way, Low, and I’ve already done more than I should have. So please help me out tonight. Just let me kiss you.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, and I suddenly couldn’t make myself move.

Knox tried to kiss me again, but when he realized I was just sitting there, he sat back and looked at me with worried eyes. “What? Harlow, what just happened?”

“I want you,” I whispered timidly.

He laughed huskily. “And you think I don’t want you?”

I shook my head. “No, I-I do. But what if things change? I want you now, I want to be with you in that way, and what if I finally turn eighteen and something happens so that we don’t want to be together anymore? What if after all this, I still never get you?”

“Babe,” he said, “after how long we’ve waited for each other, nothing is going to happen in three months.”

“You promise?”

His lips twitched into a smile. “I promise. I love you.”

“To the stars?”

“Always to the stars.” Knox stared at me with his dark eyes as he absentmindedly pushed loose strands of hair behind my ears. After a handful of seconds passed, he asked, “Why would anyone waste their time only loving someone to the moon when they could love them to the stars?”

My heart pounded at his question. For someone who said he wasn’t a romantic, he liked to say things that suggested otherwise. “Maybe some people aren’t lucky enough to know our kind of love.”

Cupping his hands around my cheeks, he pulled me in for a slow kiss, then turned me so I was sitting across his lap instead of straddling him. With his mouth still pressed to mine, he laid us down on the couch and pulled my body close to his.

“You are insane to think that there would ever be a time where I wouldn’t want you,” he whispered against my neck. His teeth grazed against the soft flesh there before he murmured, “I’m going to marry you, Harlow Evans.”

I’m pretty sure my heart stopped for a few beats before it took off faster than I’d ever felt it.

“I’m going to give you my last name,” he continued, then trailed his lips back up my throat.

My fingers fisted in his hair, and my eyelids slipped shut as I pictured it. The wedding, the dress . . . the way Knox would look as I walked toward him.

“I will spend whole days making up for time we missed.” His meaning wasn’t lost, and my blood heated with the promise. Knox spoke his next words against my lips, making each word feel like a teasing kiss. “You’ll look so beautiful with a round stomach when we decide to have kids.”

My mouth curved up against his next kiss. “How many?”

“Two?”

I thought for a second then nodded. “I’m okay with two.” Opening my eyes, I found him watching me with intense eyes, and I wondered if he could see it all just as clearly as I had. Placing a hand against his cheek, I asked, “Then what?”

For the next half hour, we kissed and planned out our future. For that time, everything was perfect in my world.

“CHRIST, KNOX! SHE’S still a damn minor!” Graham yelled later, waking us up.

I tried jumping off the couch, but Knox just tightened his arms around me. Ignoring Graham, he cupped my cheek and stared into my eyes for long seconds before slowly crawling over me to get off the couch.

“Do you know what her parents can do to you if she ends up pregnant?”

“Fuck, Graham, I didn’t touch her!” Knox yelled at the same time I said, “My parents love him.”

“Oh, so that just makes all this fine then, doesn’t it?” Graham mocked my same assured tone.

“Well, we didn’t do anything!” I said defensively and crossed my arms over my chest.

Graham stepped close to me and clapped slowly as he sneered, “Good for you, do you want a gold star? Whether or not you do anything, it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been stringing him on long enough with this wait-for-you bullshit, and now with you going away, you’re just guaranteeing another four years of the same. He deserves a life!”

“Enough,” Knox growled, and pushed Graham back.

“That’s what I want for him!” I yelled. “That’s all I’ve wanted!”

“Bullshit!” Graham yelled back. “You’re like a goddamn drug. He can’t go three days without you, Harlow, and he can’t even touch you without risking getting arrested! If you wanted him to have an actual life, you would’ve left in the beginning, and you would’ve stayed gone.”

Present Day—Richland

“HARLOW,” COLLIN SAID in a worried tone.

I jerked away from where I was washing dishes, and tore my eyes from the window just above the sink. “Hmm?” As soon as I made the noise I cringed. Collin hated it when I didn’t actually answer him. Normally I wouldn’t have made such a careless mistake, but I was having trouble leaving my daydream . . . something that happened more and more often since seeing Knox Alexander. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I asked, “Yes?”

He’d been walking toward me and now pulled me into his arms. “Are you feeling okay? I called your name four times before you responded to me.”

My stomach twisted in fear, and I quickly tried to think of any reason why I would have made him call for me more than once. “I-I-I I’m so—”

“Baby, baby. Shh,” he hushed me, and rubbed a hand gently up and down my arm. “You don’t have to explain yourself; I know you haven’t been feeling well.” The hand that had been rubbing my arm moved down so his knuckles could brush against my stomach. The reminder of my lie made me breathe easier but I felt like I was choking at the same time.

I was still buying myself time, but that time was about to run out, and who knew what would happen then.

One more day.

“Still,” I began, and cleared my throat, “I should have heard you, I’m sorry. Did you want more coffee to go this morning?”

“No. I was just letting you know I was leaving for work.” Collin smiled and pressed his mouth softly to mine. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“Of course.”

With a careful look, he finally released me, then took a few steps away before turning and walking out of the kitchen. “Don’t overwork yourself today, Harlow!” he called out just before I heard the door open and shut behind him.