“Yes.”
She shoves at my shoulder and pulls away even more. “Dawson.”
I chuckle and open my eyes. We both know I’m not a man of few words. “Flings fade, Emory, but fate doesn’t. When something is meant to be, there’s only one direction for it to move.”
“Yeah, and where’s that?”
I look into her sparkling green eyes. “To a place where both people continuously fall harder. Where they become so obsessedwith one another,” I curl my hand around her neck and bring her mouth back to mine, “that they need the other to survive.”
I drag my mouth over hers until she breaks the kiss. “Are you saying I’m the oxygen your lungs need because that’s kind of cli?—”
“I’m saying that you’reeverythingmy body needs—not just oxygen. Your smile makes my blood pump through my body just how it needs to. Your laughter makes my heart beat in normal rhythm. Your kindness and the way you are so carefully driven inspires me in ways that make me a better man. And…” I clear my throat. “I can’t not include your sexy little?—”
Her hand covers my mouth, and a laugh of my own slips through her fingers. “You’re so annoying,” she says, but there is so much playfulness in her words that I couldn’t miss it even if I tried.
She slips off my lap and sits next to me. I look at her, loving the way her lips are red from me and not just the winter chill in the air. At the thought, a small worry pushes in.
“You know I’m never going to keep you from doing what you want, but it’s starting to cool down more. Might want to make sure you’re coming out here on the warmest days of the week.”
She sighs and looks out at the horizon. “I was actually thinking the same thing. The last few times have been a bit cold, but it just feels so nice to not be afraid anymore, you know?”
“I know, honey. You should be proud of how far you’ve come and for all the work you’ve put into overcoming all the hard things that tried to break you.”
She drops her shoulder into mine. “I am, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”
“Yes, you would have,” I tell her. “It just would have looked different. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” I grab the gift bag at my feet and swing it over to her. “Merry Christmas.”
She slowly lifts her head from me and takes it, looking at me with curiosity in her eyes. “Dawson, what did you do? We have another two weeks to go.”
I smile and push my glasses up the bridge of my nose. “I couldn’t wait any longer. Open it.”
She doesn’t waste time. She lifts the carefully wrapped box out of the bag and slowly picks away the corners of the hunter green Christmas tree wrapping paper until there’s a box on her lap. A small gasp leaves her.
It’s not the same exact model she lost out in the water, but it’s damn close—the next tier up. She’s been wanting to replace it for awhile but has had her priorities set on building a personal savings account since Lance left her with nearly nothing.
He only let her go back to the house once to grab the rest of her belongings, which meant some things got left behind. It probably didn’t help that his mother influenced his actions—she was salty over all the money they put into wedding planning and supposedly forbade Emory from stepping foot into Lance’s house.
So, I bought the camera for her that way she didn’t have to sacrifice her own personal goals.
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” I tell her in a soft tone, my eyes dropping down to her hold on the box, but more specifically, her hand. She replaced the bare spot on her ring finger with a promise ring a month ago, a simple golden band with a small emerald—her commitment to always stay true to herself. “I know it’s not the same exact one but?—”
“It’s perfect, Dawson.” When she looks over at me, there are tears in her eyes. “Thank you. I can’t believe this is actually sitting in my lap right now. The one my parents got me was a thrift-store find. They paid a fraction of the price they would have.”
A sadness overcomes me at the mention of her family. “Have you heard from them lately?”
It’s subtle, but she shakes her head. “Just an occasional text here and there. Weeks go by in between. You know how it is. They have other stuff to tend to.”
My chest physically hurts from her answer. I hate that she doesn’t have a better relationship with the people that raised her. But I also know that fractured family relationships are more common than any one person understands. One day, I hope it’s different for her, and they realize how much they’re missing out on. For now, though, I’ll help her through the pain that comes and goes from them being so absent.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur, watching as the sudden frown on her lips flips into a small smile.
“It’s fine.” She opens the box and finicks with the camera for all of one second before she scoots as close as she can to me. “I wonder if it’ll start right up.”
“I don’t see why it wouldn’t.”
She powers it on a second later, the screen lighting up perfectly. Then, she lifts the camera in our direction like she’s going to snap a photo of us. I stare at her, mesmerized and transfixed all at the same time.
