"I'm hoping there won't be a next time." He kissed me softly. "I'm hoping this is it. You and me. Forever."
"Forever is a long time."
"Not long enough." His arms tightened around me. "Charlotte, I spent fifteen years without you. I'm not wasting another minute."
I looked up at him, my husband, my partner, my second chance, and felt my heart expand until I thought it might burst.
"Ready to go home?" I asked.
He smiled. "I'm already home."
"That's very smooth."
"I'm always practicing."
I laughed and kissed him again, tasting joy and promise and a future neither of us had dared to hope for. When I pulled back, something mischievous flickered in his eyes.
"So," he said. "I've been thinking."
"Dangerous."
"About what comes next."
"We literally just got married. Can we have five minutes?"
"We can have all the minutes." He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "But I was thinking about what you said. About building a family in whatever way makes sense for us."
My breath caught. "Miles?—"
"Not tonight. Not tomorrow. But someday." His gaze held mine, steady and certain. "I want to build something with you, Charlotte. A life. A home. Maybe even a family, however that looks."
The tears were back, happy ones, the kind that didn't ruin mascara because I'd stopped caring about mascara hours ago.
"I want that too," I whispered.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He kissed my forehead, then my nose, then my lips, soft and lingering and full of promise.
"Then let's go home, Mrs. Cameron. Our life is waiting."
I took his hand, trembling, warm, mine, and we walked away from the river together, leaving behind the oak tree that had witnessed every chapter of our story.
First kiss at seventeen. Heartbreak. Fifteen years of silence. A reunion that changed everything. An accident that almost took him from me. Memories lost and found. A love that refused to die.
And now, a beginning.
The road ahead wouldn't be easy. There would be hard days, tremors, doctor's appointments, and fears that crept in at 3 AM.But as we walked towards our car, towards our home, towards whatever came next, I knew one thing with absolute certainty:
We would face it together.
And together, we were unstoppable.
20.Miles
The pot slipped.
