Ivy is quiet, staring up at me with a small dreamy smile for a minute as I continue touching and tracing her features. I’m about to open my mouth to speak again, when her words cut me off at the knees.
“I love you,” she whispers.
My heart seizes in my chest. I’m rooted to the spot, stunned silent. She took the words right out of my mouth. If she only fucking knew. I try to recall the speech I had prepared on the plane, but it escapes me.
My silence doesn’t deter her.
Ivy takes a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks on the exhale, and continues to unravel me completely. “I love you so much, I feel it in my bones,” she rasps, gently placing a hand over her chest. “YouandDelilah. I don’t know how I got lucky enough to land in your life, but I don’t care. I’m taking it and running. Being with you feels like I stumbled into the best part of my life without even realizing it.” The grey light in the room has brightened the slightest bit, showing me Ivy’s shrink wrapped eyes. “You’re it for me, Wesley. You don’t have to say it back, but I just needed you to know that. That I love you.” Her whisper is so faint, I have to strain my ears to hear the last couple words.
“Ivy.” My voice is pure gravel.
“Really, you don’t–” she cuts me off.
I place a finger to her lips. “Honey, please.”
“Sorry,” she mumbles around my finger, and I drop my hand.
I shuck off my pants, pull off my socks, and grab the back collar of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head. Ivy instinctively opens the blanket, and scoots over to make room for me. I slide into bed with her, and lay on my side, soaking up the warmth from her body.
Facing each other, I wrap my arm around her small frame and drag her into me, wanting there to be absolutely zero space between us. Looking down at her with our noses almost touching, I take a lungful of her sweet familiar scent. It cloaks the pillows, and makes me never want to wash my sheets again.
I tuck a rogue curl behind her ear, and her eyes flutter closed as she hums in answer. I go for it, completely forgetting what I had planned to say, and speaking from the heart. “I didn’tfallin love with you.”
She scrunches her nose and whispers, “Ouch.”
“I fucking plummeted.” I say, and my voice cracks. “A fucking nosedive, baby.”
Her eyes fly open at that. “Oh,” she breathes out.
“Headfirst, without a goddamn parachute. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
She inhales shakily, and scans my entire face, nodding.
I think she’s nodding to herself, more than me. So I continue, “I’m so entirely gone for you it's concerning. You make it impossible not to love you. You came into our lives like a hurricane, but now I can’t even remember what life was like without you. You’re the fucking sun,” I say, my voice thick. I brush my nose against hers, and keep going. “I tried to fight it…but I didn’t stand a fuckin’ chance. I think I’ve been yours for a very, very long time, Ivy.”
She sucks in a sharp breath.
“So yeah, baby.” I feel the corner of my lips lift into a smirk, “I love you. I love you so much it hurts, so much that I can’t fucking see straight.”
Ivy lifts her hand up and presses the tip of her finger into my exposed dimple. I lift my hand as well, and wipe away the stray tear rolling down her nose.
I don’t know who moves first, but we meet in the middle and mold our mouths together. I open my lips, and Ivy sweeps her tongue in without hesitation. The kiss is soft and searching, but it’s not just a kiss. It’s the final thread pulling us together.
Having Ivy in my arms feels like the earth finally righted itself on its axis. Like my mess of a life, finally found its peace. Like the noise in my head finally quieted, and all the pieces of my life shifted into place. She makes me feel steady. She’shome.
I cradle her head in my hands, and when I start to deepen the kiss, a small voice echoes just outside the door.
“Iby?” Lilah calls out.
Ivy pulls back, and grins against my lips.
Sniffling, Ivy clears her throat. “Come in,” Ivy calls out.
The hinges creak as the door opens, and we both turn our heads to see the little form in the doorway. Delilah walks over to the bed, with Burrito in tow and nightgown twisted to the side.
She climbs up onto Ivy’s side of the bed and cuddles into her, when she finally spots me.
“Daddy, you’re home,” her soft, sleepy voice says with a yawn.
