101. I love the way you came into my life and gave me the honor of knowing you. The real you, the one I can compare to a summer’s day. I love the way you loved Aria and treated her like she was yours. I love all that you are and best of all that there are more than 101 things I love about you. To know you is to love you and I knew I had to let you go because that was what you needed. But really I just wished I could have asked you to stay. To stay in my life for me because I love you.
I stood up immediately.
This felt wrong because it was wrong. God, it was all wrong—all of it.
And I was an idiot.
“Brooke, you okay?” Noah asked.
“No.I’m not.”
Sally’s words screamed in my head. Be true to myself and true to my heart.
For that to happen I knew I had to answer this very simple question.
When I looked ahead to the future, could I see my life without Ryan?
It was the key question, that summed it all up and the answer was no.
I couldn’t imagine a world without him. I couldn’t imagine living without him. I didn’t want to. The feeling that brewed deep within burst inside me and filled me with new life and suddenly I wasn’t scared anymore.
I didn’t want to be.
Falling in love was like a story where anything could happen. Like a favorite book you never wanted to end. Our story didn’t have to end.
“Brooke.” Noah rested his hands on my shoulders and gave me a little shake. “Talk you’re freaking me out.”
“Noah, please take me back. Take me back home.”
“Home?”
“I need to get back to Ryan and Aria. He’s right. Aria does feel like mine. My daughter. They both feel like mine. I need to tell him how I feel and that I love him too. I don’t care about anything else. I’m so crazy stupid Noah. How could I leave them? Please take home.”
He started to laugh, then he looked ahead at something and smirked. His brows rose like he was surprised but there was a twinkle within his eyes.
“You know how I said I was going to love watching things play out with you over the next few months?”
I smacked him in his chest. “This is not the time to be funny with me Noah. I am being serious.”
“Me too. I love how it ended. Played out well.” He laughed and turned me around.
My heart skittered to a stop and my jaw dropped open when my eyes landed on Ryan standing only paces away from us.
The look of awe and adoration on his face told me he’d heard me. He’d heard all that I said.
“This guy’s alright in my book and I’ve decided it’s not karma that brought you two together. It was fate.” Noah laughed again.
I was listening but I couldn’t answer. I was too fixated on the man before me.
The man who stole my breath away from the first time that I saw him and the man that healed my heart and soul.
When he looked at me it was like the world stopped and we were the only two people left on earth.
My heart moved me to him. It propelled me straight into his arms. Straight to his heart where I knew I would feel his love forever.
I actually knew it, and knew more as he held me tight like he never wanted to let go of me.
“I love you.” He whispered into my ear. “I came to tell you I love you. It’s different to say it. I wanted you to remember me saying it to you.”
