I nodded. “I love you. Every part of you—whole, broken, and healing.”
Tears slipped from her eyes as she stared at me. “You mean that?”
“Of course I mean it.” I took off my seatbelt and leaned over into her space. “I want you—all of you—whenever you are ready for me. When you feel like you can’t love yourself, I’ll love you enough for the both of us. I’ll remind you of your worth when that little voice in your head is being cruel. I choose you. I choose you through your laughter and your tears, through your triumphs and struggles.
“I see you, baby. You are invaluable, Alayah, and you deserve the kind of love that you’ve poured into others. I know you carry burdens from your past. You have deep wounds that are healing but may never completely heal—all that trauma, all that pain has made you strong, resilient, and incredibly brave, even if it was intended to break you. You’ve weathered storms that would have broken a weaker person, and you’ve broken through those barriers with a heart still capable of kindness and love. How could I not love you?”
“Killian,” she whimpered. She cupped my face and kissed me softly. “I love you, too.”
We shared another kiss, this one passionate and filled with the love we’d just professed. It was crazy how much of a difference those three little words had already made.
The incessant tapping on the window finally forced our lips apart. We looked up to see Adrienne standing in front of the car with her hands on her hips.
“I know y’all are in love and everything, but y’all can do all that later. Come on!”
Alayah and I looked at each other and shook our heads.
“Teenagers,” she mumbled. “Let’s get out of here before I have to tell Miss Thang about herself.”
I chuckled as I opened the car door. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 27
Alayah
He loved me.
I couldn’t pretend like I wasn’t floating on cloud nine right now. The confession had me stuck on stupid, then to have him explain it to me… I was a mess. I must have dipped into the bathroom at Urban Indoor Adventures three times to cry my eyes out. Being loved by my sisters, my aunt, and uncle was one thing.
To be loved by Killian was another.
I’d sworn off men. I told myself I didn’t want or need them. Life as a lonely cat lady wouldn’t be so bad. Then here came Killian Lake—once my only real friend and now my lover. When I first ran into him at the grocery store, I was angry. We’d been close, and the fact that he never wrote me or anything hurt my heart when I first went in.
Then I had to remember that we were kids. He had his entire life ahead of him. He had plans for college and a career that didn’t include me and my thirty-year sentence. I hadn’t even thought about what school had been like for him after my arrest. I could only imagine the number of questions and whispers that went on behind his back.
Kids could be messy as hell. Everyone knew we were friends. They saw us sitting together at lunch. We had the same study hall. We sat next to each other in class. We were always together, so by my assumption, he had to have faced some backlash for being friends with me—a murderer.
Even after all these years, he still found his way back to me. I’d never imagined seeing him in that courtroom at my parole hearing would lead to that man telling me he loved me.
As I stood at the bottom of the zip line waiting for him to come down, all I could do was smile and laugh. Hereallydidn’t like heights and had insisted on going last.
“Come on, Killian,” Adrienne yelled. “Don’t be a chicken.”
Miyah started making chicken noises, and Adrienne joined in.
“Y’all are really funny,” he yelled. “Let’s see how you get home.”
The two of them reeled in their laughter, but continued to snicker as they watched him. The instructor seemed to be giving him an encouraging word, but he wasn’t going for it.
“You got this, baby,” I yelled, surprising myself.
“Look at her hyping her man up,” Adrienne whispered loudly to Amiyah.
“Y’all are about to get on my nerves,” I said.
They both laughed as they wrapped their arms around me.
“Come on, sissy,” Adrienne jested. “We have a lot of years to make up for with being the annoying little sisters. But for real, we love to see you happy. If he’s gonna be our brother-in-law, he has to get used to the teasing. It just means we like him.”
