“This is amazing,” I whisper as I stare up at the completely clear sky, admiring thousands of stars as far as my eye can see. “I never thought I’d be so lucky as to look up and see a sight as beautiful as this one.”
“Yeah,” he breathes, his breath fanning across my cheek. I turn my head to see him already staring at me. “It’s quite the sight, indeed.”
A blush creeps into my cheeks as a shy smile tugs at my lips. “How would you know? You’re not even looking.”
“I’m looking at the only sight that matters.”
He closes the space between us, flipping so he’s on his side while he cups my cheek in his hand, pressing his lips to mine in a heart stopping kiss. I eagerly return his passion, gently holding onto his wrist as he steals the air from my lungs. When he pulls back, he rests his forehead against mine.
“I just want to thank you,” I tell him, breaking the silence. “Not just for this birthday trip, but for everything you’ve done the last few months. And not only for me, but for Claire as well. The only consistent male role model she ever had in her life was my father. So you going to every game and spending all this time with her? It means more than you’ll ever know.”
“You don’t need to thank me.” He attempts to shrug, but the position we are in makes it difficult. “Can I ask you something? Something I’m pretty sure I’ve asked you before.”
I smile and nod. “Of course.”
“Do you believe in fate yet?”
“I’m starting to.”
A giant, dazzling smile lights up Levi’s face, causing my heart to constrict as I return his grin. He rubs his nose against mine and presses a quick peck to my lips.
“You know,” he begins, his voice low as he lays back and tucks me into his side. His hand rubs small patterns up and down my spine, his heartbeat a constant in my ear. “I never trulyexpected my life to take the twists and turns that it has. As a kid, you think you have everything figured out. Your goals, your career. And then you hit high school and your vision changes, but you still think there’s all these opportunities lined up for you. Then you become an adult, and life tries its damnedest to beat you down. To hit you with everything it can to see if you break. And when you don’t, when you get up off your knees for the hundredth time, life finally rewards you.”
Levi’s head tilts so he’s looking at me once more, his gaze soft. “That very first night that I met you, life was teasing me with what I could have. Was showing me what my reward would be if I could continue to push through and keep fighting all the obstacles in my way. I dreamt about you almost every single night. Constantly wondered who you were or what you were up to. You consumed my every thought, every waking moment of every day.”
I tilt my head up and press a kiss to his cheek. “For what it’s worth, I thought about you a lot, too.”
“It’s worth a lot,” he says before continuing. “But as the years went by and everything was falling into place for me in other aspects of my life, I started to lose hope that I would ever find you again. And I never told you this, but the day that I ran into you in the same spot we had five years prior, I was on the verge of selling the company and moving back here. But seeing you there? I knew I had to stay. I wasn’t about to let you go a second time.”
Tears spring to my eyes before I can stop them and I lean up on my elbows, resting on his chest to look down at him. “You gave up moving back here… for me? Why?”
“Because I knew I would’ve been a fool to walk away from the woman I was destined to fall in love with.”
My eyes widen at his omission, causing a tear to slip down my cheek. He catches it with his thumb and kisses its path beforepulling back to look at me with nothing but love and adoration in his eyes.
“I want you to know that wherever you go, I will follow. That whatever you need, I plan on giving it to you.” As he speaks, he trails kisses over my forehead, cheeks, nose and chin. “I will never walk away from you, and I will do my best to always be what you and Claire need. You can always count on me, Lowe, because I love you.” Another salty tear escapes. “I love you more than I ever thought it was humanly possible to love another person. But I thank whatever power may be that led me to you every single day that I am the man who is lucky enough to love you.”
A wet chuckle escapes me as the tears flow with no signs of stopping. I bury my head into his neck, squeezing him tightly as he peppers kisses to my temple, one hand rubbing circles on my back and the other running through my hair. Pulling back, I wipe at my eyes and give him the biggest smile I can muster as I cup his cheek.
“For a while, I thought I was destined to receive the bare minimum and to give everything, all of me, to everyone else. I never imagined that I’d find someone who gave me more than I gave and showed me I deserve so much more.” He gives me a gentle smile, still running his hand over my hair. “When my boss matched us together, I thought the universe was playing some kind of trick on me. Because why wouldn’t it? Why would I deserve a second chance when I was the idiot who walked away all those years ago without learning your name?”
His smile falls slightly as a sad scoff echoes between us. “I found myself back on that rooftop every night for five months, hoping you’d come back so I could have a redo. But when you didn’t show, I figured that meant I had missed my chance. And then when I was handed my second chance on a silver platter, I was hesitant. I was afraid of losing something so good becauseof my messy past. But you have taken everything in stride and been such a godsend to both me and my daughter. How couldn’t I fall in love with you? I’ll always think, deep down, that I don’t deserve you. But it’s so easy to love you, and I’m grateful that I get to.”
“You love me?” Surprise seeps into his voice, mixed with hope.
I push myself up to my knees and reach for his hands, dragging him to sit up, too. Squeezing his hands, I stare into his eyes for a few seconds, making sure he’s listening before I speak.
“I love you, Levi Wright. And I thank my lucky stars for you every single day.”
“Say it again,” he whispers, cupping my face between his hands.
I rest my hands on his wrists. “I love you.”
“And I love you.”
Our lips collide, a kiss full of love and promise of the future I think we were both too afraid to let ourselves believe we could have. We make out in the bed of the pickup truck like two horny teenagers in love, falling asleep amongst the pillows and blankets in one another’s arms, with nothing but the stars above us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
