I looked him in the eyes. “What happens when you’re filming and you have to do some love scenes with another woman? What if her kiss is what you feel you’re missing out on? On-set romances happen all the time – some by accident. You know as well as I do that it happens. I can’t get it out of my head that all actors end up falling for actresses. What if bar owner from Rhode Island isn’t enough?”

“Honey, there’s a big difference between kissing you and faking it for film!” he laughed out. “I’m getting cast into a lot of romantic movies, and it’s going to be unavoidable. Everyone wants to see romance. But it’s not real. It’s not this. What you and I have… this is real. You’ll just have to trust me.”“

Well these are all the things that I’m thinking about. It’s not easy for me to trust men,” I whispered.

“I know. I have to prove that I’m not like the others. It’s all right. I can do that,” he said, giving me an elbow nudge. “How about if I call you every fifteen minutes to remind you that I’m madly in love with you? Will that work?”

I rolled my eyes and laughed.

“I can wear one of those iron chastity belts if it will make you feel better.”

“Would you?” I kidded back.

“I’ll have to get you another chain so you can wear the key as a necklace.”

I smirked. “I don’t want you to think that I’m some insecure mess. It’s just that, well, this stuff happens, and…”

“What about letting Marie run the pub?” he quickly suggested.

Great… he found another one of my issues.

“Ryan, the pub is my source of income. Marie isn’t opposed to taking care of things so I can travel, but honestly, with or without you, I need to maintain my own sense of stability. I’m not going to sit back and do nothing while having a high time spending your money. That’s not me. I’ve got to hold my own in this relationship.”

Ryan crossed his ankle up on his knee.

“Did you give any more thought to leasing out the kitchen to Tammy? Then that’s even more income for you. Even if Tammy doesn’t use it, you can lease it out to someone else.”

“That’s going to take a lot of money, Ryan. More than I can afford to spend right now. And I know what you’re going to say.”

“Twenty grand, Taryn, is not a big deal. I still think that’s a lot more than what it should cost just to replace the plumbing. We can make it legal if you want so you don’t have to worry. Or we could just take it out in trade.” He pulled me by my shoulder to bump me into his chest.

I sighed.

“Listen Taryn, I’m not going anywhere. So I have to travel when I film. So what. Like I said, we both travel from time to time and then I have a few weeks off here and there. If I promise to… slow down, will you promise to quit worrying?”

I nodded.

“Say it!” he taunted.

“I promise,” I said, laughing lightly at his urging.

“Okay… and I promise too.” Ryan’s fingers lifted my chin.

I gazed lovingly into his eyes. Those eyes, so blue, filled to the brim with passion and conviction, were absolutely mesmerizing. We were drawn together by an invisible magnetism that reached all the way to the core of my being.

“I love you, Taryn Lynn Mitchell,” he said with a smile.

“I love you too, Ryan William Christensen.”

Although I thought I had been in love before with other men, never did those three little words mean so much to me as they did at this moment with this man. The feelings that flowed between us were natural and effortless; as easy as breathing.

While he was kissing me, I heard his stomach growl loudly. “We better get inside for dinner.” I pulled him by the hands.

“You know, when you walked away with your keys I thought you were planning on speeding off in your car.”

“No!” I laughed. “I actually got you a birthday present today. There’s no way I can get it home without you seeing it, so I thought I’d just give it to you now.” I unlocked the car and he let go of my hand.

“I got it at the antiques store down the road. I hope you like it.”

“Wow! Look at this! It’s an old Gibson!” His fingers strummed over the strings, but his cell phone buzzing in his pocket distracted him. “Ahh, I just turned the damn thing on and already it’s ringing.”

“Hello? Who is this? Oh… what?” Ryan was short with whoever was on the other line. He turned his shoulder away from me, dropping his voice to a whisper. “I thought I made things perfectly clear the last time we had this conversation. I told you… things have changed. Then stop calling me,”

he said quite callously.

He turned his phone off and walked a few feet away before noticing that I wasn’t following him. He held his hand out to me and waited until I caught up, silently towing me towards the house.

“Are you two all right?” Ellen asked when we entered the kitchen.

“Yeah, Mom. Taryn and I had some things to discuss that were more important than dinner.” He picked a piece of fish off of the plate and shoved it in his mouth. “See this?” he whispered in my ear. “Family, peace, no screaming fans, no security, home-cooked meals, normalcy. This is what I want. This is what I miss.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “Because it’s the only way I know.”

After dinner, I grabbed some blankets and with two open bottles of wine we made our way out to the backyard. Ryan and his father threw more logs on the fire, setting a nice blaze in the fire pit. Millions of stars dotted the clear sky.

I took Ryan’s guitar and softly played a few chords.

“What are you playing?” Ryan asked.

“Nothing… I just had some lyrics in my head.”

We took turns playing, each of us adding to the melody.

We were trying to come up with words that rhymed. After an hour, we had written part of a song… our song.

“When is your next movie going to start filming, Son?” Bill asked.

Ryan stopped playing. “Rehearsals start January 3rd. I’ll be filming in Miami for almost three months,” he said as he looked over at me.

“What’s the movie called?” Bill continued.

“It’s called Thousand Miles. It’s already been scheduled to be released by next November, I guess right around Thanksgiving again.”