Page 109 of Goodbye, Orchid

“I love you.”

The shock of the words required her to replay them in order to absorb his meaning. Her hand over her mouth when she didn’t remember raising it, the tears she’d predicted came. Hot, salted droplets cascaded heavy like liquid metal, one for every moment apart, for every stone of his suffering, for each missed opportunity. She threw her arms around him. He returned the embrace, no buttered rolls needed.

He tilted his head back to trace a thumb over her cheek, reading her right. “I’m sorry I hurt you. Forgive me?”

He held his breath waiting for her answer. She nodded, her throat too tight to speak.

“Tell me we can try again. Long distance, or I’ll find business in China.”

He’s willing to go around the world for me.Tears welled, spilling off the precipice. She burrowed into the safety of his shirt.

His voice rumbled through her. “It’s only fair to warn you not everything’s going to be easy being with me. It’s not going to be the same as before the accident, but do you want to try?”

Unable to resist the rush of the improbable tipping towards reality, she tiptoed up to touch lips to his soft, full mouth. Holy scent of soap and spice. “It has to be easier than not being with you.”

His lips curved up at the corners over straight, white teeth, brightening his face. He pulled her closer, his chest against hers. “How I’ve wanted this.”

He bent and touched his lips to hers until every subatomic particle bloomed to its fullest glory. He tingled her skin with a kiss like no other, one that evoked thoughts of an expanding universe and the study of numbers beyond infinity.

“Me, too,” she said.

He tightened his hold on her. Time ticked forward to unearth each lost intersection, devotion and affection.

He was hers, and she was his. Not a thing missing.