“Unless you’ve suddenly decided I’m your dream girl instead of Iris and you’re proposing a sleepover, I think this bed was delivered to the wrong door,” she said with a lopsided smile.
Crap.
“Uh, yeah, that’s meant for Iris,” I told her.
“No worries, big guy. You can make it up to me by coming to game night tomorrow,” she said, and I realized she’d conned me right into that one. “I’m thinkin’ we might play strip poker.”
Usually, I was very good at keeping my reactions hidden, but in this case, I must not have been as fast to cover my face, because she cackled and then turned around and spoke to someone behind her.
“In here, boys. This is the unit you really want,” she said, and two men carrying a huge box walked over to the door I was standing in front of.
I moved out of the way, telling them where to put it.
“A new bed, eh?” Iris looked at me, her arms crossed, head tilted back to look up at me with a small grin tugging at her lips.
Lips that I wanted to kiss the ever-loving hell out of.
“Surprise,” I said, giving her a small smile in return.
“And what’s going to happen to my current bed?” she asked.
“If you want to keep it, we can, but these guys offered to take it to the local women’s shelter for free if you don’t want it.”
Her face softened, and she nodded. “Yeah, let’s have them donate it.”
An hour later, the new bed and mattress were all delivered and set up and the old one was on its way to the shelter. I finally had her alone again and was looking forward to trying out that new bed.
After signing the paperwork for everything, I walked back into her apartment and found her snuggled up on the couch with Sarge in her lap and a book in her hand. Her glasses were perched on top of her nose, and her hair was up in some messy bun with a few stray curls around her face. She looked perfect.
This woman was it for me. I loved her. The words had fallen from my lips a few weeks ago after everything had happened, but I hadn’t said them again since, not sure if I was just caught up in the adrenaline of the day, or if my brain really knew what the rest of my body was feeling.
I knew we hadn’t known each other for long, but some things you just knew, and this was one of them.
I loved how brave and strong she was—how caring, loyal, and compassionate. I felt deep down like she was my other half. She was the answer I didn't know I had been searching for.
I hadn’t realized how long I had been standing there staring at her until she spoke, though her eyes were still trained on her book. “How long you gonna stand there and gawk at me?”
She looked up at me and smiled. When she smiled at me like that, I knew I would give her the world if she asked. Not being one to beat around the bush, I realized I wanted her to hear me say it this time, not just when she was asleep.
“I love you, Iris,” I said, walking over to the couch and squatting in front of her. “You’re it for me. You have been since the day I met you. I just didn’t know it yet.”
She didn’t say anything, but her face was an open book, so the emotions swirling through her were clearly visible.
“Hector,” she said, her breath hitching. “I love you, too.”
I leaned forward to kiss her, but Sarge grumbled at me for invading his comfy pillow—also known as Iris’s lap.
“Why don’t I help you christen this new bed you got us…you know…just to make sure it doesn’t suck,” she said, smiling at me while giving me a little wink.
I chose not to respond verbally. I simply picked her up, put her over my shoulder, and carried her straight to the bedroom. I did it to the sound of her laughter—a sound I would never tire of hearing.
A sound I hoped to hear for the rest of my life.
EPILOGUE
Iris
Three Months Later
