“Emery,” he said again, his voice a croak. “What happened? I went by your house, and Belinda said you’d left. That you ran out the door.”
“I did. I had to. He was going to try to marry me off to that creep.” I held his letters tightly to me. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for you. I—” Xander hung his head. “My dad isn’t doing well. I don’t think he’s going to…be around much longer. I’m going to sell the house to help pay for the home, but anything after that, I’m giving to you. And the tutoring money. I still have it. I’ll give that to you too, so you can make a fresh start in California—”
I tore off the rock, letters fluttering to the ground, and threw my arms around him. I buried my face in the warm skin of his neck.
I’ll never let go…
“How are you forgiving me?” he asked against my hair.
“Forgiving you?”
“You were trying to save me. To push me away to keep me safe, and, like a fool, I took the bait. I left you. Now you’re out here in the dark, alone…”
“I had to do it alone. I had to walk away with no hope or promise that anything could save me but me.” I pulled away to hold his face. “You were exactly where you needed to be. With your father, right?”
He nodded. “He’s safe now. In Boston. They can give him the care I can’t.”
“You did so good for so long, Xander.”
His gaze was soft and warm…then sharpened on the left side of my face. “Emery…”
“I’m okay.”
“He hit you.”
“Yes, but I hit him back,” I said, my voice watery. “It was terrible and awful but kind of freeing too. Like something breaking between us forever.”
Xander’s mouth was drawn down in anger and he pulled me to him again, holding me fiercely. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”
“I have something to show you.” I led him by the hand to our rock and swept up the letters. “Look.”
He slowly took them from me. “How…? Where…?”
“My mother had them. All this time. She thought she was protecting me, as if she could stop me from loving you, somehow. She was wrong.”
Xander sat down on the rock and I sat beside him. “Did you…?”
I nodded, tears in my eyes. “I read every single one, and they’re so beautiful, Xander. It hurt to see how much it hurt you to hear nothing back, but you still said you loved me.”
He looked to me. “I always will.”
I smiled, my tears spilling over. “Can you kiss me now? I could really use a kiss.”
Xander cupped my face in his hands and brought his lips to mine. My eyes fell shut as the purest relief and love infused me. His mouth was warm and soft, and I opened mine to let him in. His gentle tongue tasted every part of me. And I kissed him back, his own taste and scent so familiar now, seemingly made just for me.
His lips retreated, but he kept holding my face, his eyes drinking me in. “Sometimes I can’t believe you’re real.”
“I’m right here.”
“And I’m not letting you go again.”
“Good thing, seeing as how we’re legally bound in holy matrimony,” I teased, happiness coming out of my pores.
He smiled but his gaze was intent as he glanced at his watch. “We still have time.”
“For what?”
