"So, remind me. Are you an only child?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah. My Mom passed away before she had any more kids and Dad was so heartbroken he never remarried. It was always just me and him."

"Did you like that? Being an only child?"

"No, I hated it. Especially on holidays like Easter and Christmas and the fourth of July. Doing fireworks and Easter egg hunts and opening presents would've been a lot more fun if I had other kids there to share it with."

"That's true. The plus side is, you never had to compete for your Dad's attention or fight over toys. Everything growing up at our house was a battle," he laughed. "Survival of the fittest. We had to fight for everything tooth and nail."

"What do you mean? What did you have to fight for?"

"Literally everything. Attention, time, cars, money, food. My poor Mom had three growing boys to feed that were always starving. At our house whoever finished their plate first got seconds first so it was a race to scarf it down and get seconds before it was all gone."

I laughed. "Yeah I never had to fight for food, but," I said with an exhale. "at least you had someone at home to cook for you. I had to cook everything myself because I was the only one home."

"That's true," he nodded. "I never thought about it that way."

"It must have been hard on your parents raising four kids without much money. Kids are expensive."

"Yeah," he nodded. "Everyone had to help out. As soon as I could ride a bike I had a newspaper route and my little brothers collected our chicken's eggs and sold them to the neighbors until they were old enough for a paper route too. When I was fifteen the three of us started our own lawn mowing service for the neighborhood and we made pretty decent money for three kids. If we wanted brand name shoes and clothes and to go out with our friends we had to pay for it ourselves. I paid for my own car at 16 and I paid my way to Hollywood myself."

"So then you understand why I'm working so hard to save up for a house. I want to be able to stand back and be proud and say I did that all by myself."

"Yeah I understand," he nodded. "When you earn things yourself it's a lot more satisfying."

"Yeah," I nodded.

I felt like he really got me. That didn't happen very often. Usually people told me I was stupid for turning down help but he understood.

He looked over at me and asked, "So do you want a big family since you hated being an only child?"

I smiled and said, "Yeah. I love the thought of having a house full of kids and a husband waiting for me when I walk in the door. People to kiss and snuggle and talk to about my day. I've never had that."

"How many kids do you want?" he asked, taking a sip of wine.

"I'd love to have like three or four. I don't want an empty house like what I grew up in. I want one that's full of noise and excitement and energy. I wanna be the hockey, soccer, ballet mom that runs them to practices and cooks brownies for the bake sale and plans a birthday party," I said, smiling just thinking about it. My smile started to fade and I let out an exhale and said, "I want to be able to do all the Mom things I missed out on with my Mom."

He nodded, listening. "So do you want to be a stay at home mom or do you want to have a career?" he asked. "I know you're going to college?"

"I'd love to be able to stay home and focus on my family but that's unrealistic. I'm almost done getting my business management degree and I love working at Campus Perk so I'm thinking about maybe opening my own coffee shop one day so things can be run the way I want. Working for somebody else, you always have to do things their way."

"Why's staying at home unrealistic?"

"Because, the average income in Sioux City's only like thirty thousand dollars. My future husband won't be able to support a big family alone on that, so I know I'll have to help out. That's just the way it is."

He nodded and sat there, looking at the glass of wine in his hands. "So do you have any guys in mind?" he asked. "For your future husband?"

I took a deep breath in and let it out, resting my chin on my hand. "Well, I figured I'd focus on buying a house first and then afterwards I'd focus on getting a boyfriend. There are a couple guys at school that have potential. I just have to get up the nerve to actually talk to them," I laughed.

He lifted his head and looked over at me. "You seem to be talking to me just fine."

"Yeah but you're different."

"Why?" he asked with a light laugh. "Why am I different?"

I shrugged my shoulders and looked down. "It's easy to talk to you. Probably because I know you're not even an option," I said quietly, looking down at my hands.

"Why's that?" he asked, looking over at me and scrunching his eyebrows, like he was trying to figure me out.

"Did you really just ask that question?" I laughed. "Because you're you and I'm me. You're a famous movie star that lives in Hollywood that could have anyone he wants and I'm just a poor nobody from Iowa."

He hesitated for a second, his eyes locked onto mine before finally asking, "But what if you're the one I want?"

I looked over and studied his eyes, trying to tell if he was really serious. Judging by the look on his face he was. It was surreal and I felt like I was in some crazy unrealistic romantic comedy for a second but then I came back to reality. This wasn't a movie. This was the real world.

"If you're actually serious and not messing with me, there's no way a relationship with us would work."

"Why? We could make it work," he said, studying my face.

"How? I have no desire to live in Hollywood Dylan and there's no way you'd give up your acting career and move to Iowa with me. You're a great guy. You really are, but getting into a relationship with you would just end up with me having a broken heart. We'd inevitably break up because we're from two different worlds. Why would I put myself through that?"

He sat there in silence and I could tell he was thinking it over.

"A bird might love a fish, but where would they live?" I asked, quoting my favorite movie, Ever After. I let out a deep exhale and then reached over for my phone and saw the time.

"Dylan. It's 3:21. I can't believe we've been sitting out here talking almost all night." Suddenly the tiredness hit me and I yawned. "I guess I better get to bed."

Dylan stood up and started following me through the sliding doors into my bedroom. I could tell he was really sad. It probably wasn't very often that he got turned down.

"Hey," I said, laying a hand on his arm and looking up at him with sympathy as he turned to face me. My stomach tied up in knots as I looked up into his bright green eyes and handsome face. He looked down into my eyes too and we were both frozen there, like our eyes were magnets for each other and I couldn't break away.

My heart started beating faster as I realized how close we were standing to each other. He took a step closer so that he was right up against me and I suddenly forgot how to breath because he was so gorgeous. I looked at his full lips and then back up at his eyes and his gaze was intense and made my insides flutter. I suddenly wanted his lips on mine so bad.

He looked into my eyes and said, "I want to kiss you so bad right now. I've never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my life."

My heart was beating like a drum and I barely got the words "Me too" out before he leaned down and crashed his lips to mine, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against him. Feeling his lips against mine made my insides explode and I melted into his arms as I closed my eyes and kissed him back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, kissing him desperately.

He turned his head to the side and parted my lips with his tongue, covering my mouth completely with his, kissing me so good that my entire body felt like it was on fire. I had been kissed before but it had never felt like this. I could feel the spot between my legs start aching for him to be inside me and I had never wanted a man more than I wanted Dylan Chase in that moment.

He pulled in at the arch of my back, pressing himself against me and I could feel his hardness growing against my stomach letting me know he wanted me as bad as I wanted him right now.

I pulled back from the kiss panting and looked up into his face.

"Dylan," I said breathlessly. "Maybe we can't have forever. But we could have tonight. Is that enough for you?"

He studied my face and said, "I've never met anyone like you before Brenley. If tonight's all you can give me, I'll take it. Just getting to be with you at all, even if it's just once, would make me feel like the luckiest man in the world."

Hearing that made me smile and I pulled him down into another kiss.