The Shop Around the Corner (Sweet Tea and a Southern Gentleman #2)

by Anne-Marie Meyer

“Just let me hold you for this moment,” I whispered. I was begging, but I didn’t care. I needed this woman like I needed air.

“Yeah, your person. They come into your life and change everything. You are no longer the person of your past, and you have no idea who future you is either. If your person is with you, you know you’ll be safe. But if they aren’t, you are so fundamentally changed that you’re scared of moving forward without them.” He leaned in once more, his gaze leveling with mine. “He’s your life-altering person.”

“Shelby, I love you,” I said, my voice rumbling in my chest from the emotions that coated my words. “I will always love you.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you.” My thumb stroked her skin. “I want you more than you will ever know. I just…can’t. Not until you have my ring on your finger and I have yours on mine.”

“I love you,” she whispered when she finally broke the kiss and pulled back. My entire body froze as those three little words left her lips. The three little words that I’d been aching to hear. That I’d been desperate to hear. “I love you, Miles,” she repeated as she held my gaze. “I’d marry you tomorrow.”

I was going to marry Shelby as soon as I could. She would be my wife, and I was never ever going to let her go.

He pressed his forehead to mine, and his eyes closed for a moment before he suddenly dropped to his knee.

“That’s the man. The man that found Samuel and me. That’s the man that saved me.”