One Week with her (Ex) Stepbrother (Eden Manor #2) by Noelle Adams

something.
    Something
from her pile of stones she’d been saving until the right time .
    “Zach?”
she asked, her voice breaking. “What are you doing?”
    She
must have surprised him because he jerked visibly, putting down the stone he’d
been lifting. He turned around, flushed and sweating and absolutely adorable.
    When
he didn’t answer, she came closer, seeing that he was building some sort of
raised flowerbed out of the stones.
    “There
wasn’t enough for a real wall,” he said hoarsely. “But I’m making the edges of
the bed as high as I can, so it kind of looks like a secret garden.”
    She
stared down at him, at the bed, so astonished and overwhelmed with emotion she
couldn’t move.
    “I
didn’t want you to keep waiting,” he went on, dropping his head and wiping his
forehead with the back of one hand. “I didn’t want you to keep thinking that
something had to change for your life to be really good. I want you to have
this—now.”
    She
was trembling all over. She opened her mouth to speak but a strange little sob
came out. Her knees wouldn’t hold her anymore, so she dropped to the grass
beside the stone structure.
    “I
know you think it was just a physical thing,” Zach went on, reaching out to
take one of her hands in both of his. “I know you think it isn’t going to last
between us. But I want it to. I love you so much, Missy. I want to be with you
forever. And I get that you’re not there yet, and that’s fine. But I think we
should at least give us a chance. We don’t have to keep waiting. Life can
happen to us right now, if we let it.”
    Tears
started to spill out of her eyes, and she still couldn’t form any words.
    Zach
waited for a minute, and then he finally slanted her a worried look. “I can
take the bed down if you don’t like it.”
    “No!”
she burst out, blinded by more tears. “I love it. I love it. I love you .”
    She’d
said more than she intended, but she didn’t even regret it.
    Zach
gasped. “What?”
    “You
heard me.” She brushed her tears away.
    “You
love me like a…like a brother?”
    She
shook her head, unable to stop smiling. “Nothing like a brother.”
    He
groaned and pulled her toward him. After a clumsy shuffle, she ended up in his
lap with his arms around her. “Shit, Missy,” he groaned, his face against her
neck. “Why did you stomp all over my heart that way, then, acting like you
thought we were just having a little fling?”
    She
giggled and hugged him as tightly as she could. “I was scared. I didn’t know
you were serious, and I didn’t want you to think I was expecting too much from
one night.”
    He
groaned again, and it felt like all the tension in his body was finally
softening. “How could you think that? You must know how crazy about you I am. I
haven’t done a good job of hiding it. I haven’t looked at you like a
brother-type in a really long time.”
    “I
didn’t know.”
    He
kissed her then, so full of feeling it was almost clumsy. She was so happy, so
relieved, so overwhelmed that she felt like crying again.
    After
a few minutes, she leaned her head against his shoulder, feeling perfectly safe
in his arms. “You sure did date a lot of other women, if you’ve had feelings
for me for a while.”
    “Why
do you think I was doing it? I was trying to talk myself into loving someone
else. I couldn’t do it.” He nuzzled her hair. “There’s no one for me but you.”
    “I
thought you might still be into Cassandra.”
    He
chuckled. “That’s ridiculous. That was just an adolescent crush. This is real.
This is forever.”
    “For
me too.”
    He
let out a moan that sounded like pure relief. But his voice was light and
affectionate when he said, “Anyway, I thought you said I had to stay away from
Cassandra or Silas would kick my ass.”
    “He
would. He would pound you into the ground with his bare hands.”
    “I
think I could take him.”
    “In
your dreams.”
    “I’ve
been doing other things in my