When she came apart, I felt it everywhere. Her body trembling beneath mine. Her fingers digging into my shoulders. My name torn from her throat.
I followed her over. Lost myself in the only woman I'd ever wanted to get lost in. And when the wave crested and broke, I buried my face in her neck and held on.
She held on, too.
We lay tangled together afterward. Her head on my chest. My hand tracing lazy patterns on her spine.
Sirens in the distance. The ordinary sounds of a world that had kept turning while we were lost in each other.
"I forgot." Her voice was soft. Wonder and sadness mixed together. "I forgot what it was like. With you."
"Good forgotten or bad forgotten?"
She propped herself up on one elbow. Hair a mess, tangled from my hands. Lips swollen.
She'd never been more beautiful.
"Good forgotten. The kind that makes you realize everything else was just... filling time." She touched my face. "No one else ever felt like this."
"No." I kissed her palm. "They didn't."
"We should talk about this." Quieter now. "About what it means."
"It means I love you." I kissed her fingers. "It means you love me. It means we're not running anymore."
"It can't be that simple."
"Why not?"
A long silence. When she spoke, her voice was smaller.
"Because I left. Because I broke us."
I pulled her closer. Tighter.
Her heartbeat against my chest.
"You were sick, Sloane. Dealing with something neither of us had the language for." I rested my chin on her head. "That's not abandonment. That's survival."
"But—"
"Did you want to leave?"
Silence.
"No." Barely a whisper. "I wanted to stay. I just... couldn't."
"Then it wasn't a choice." I turned her in my arms until we were face to face. "You did what you had to do to survive. I wish I'd understood that then."
Her eyes searched mine. Looking for the catch. The condition. The fine print.
There wasn't any.
"I choose you. I've always chosen you. Every failed relationship, every date that went nowhere, every woman who walked away because she could tell my heart wasn't in it, I'd already chosen. Years ago."
"Garrett..."
"I'm just glad you're finally letting me."
