She took a shaky breath, and when she spoke again, her voice trembled.
"I love you."
The three words hung in the air between us.
"I love all three of you. Completely. Terrifyingly. And I know this is Boone's line, but I really don't want to fuck this up."
We continued to stare at her.
Ravik's jaw worked like he was trying to speak, but couldn't.
Boone's hands trembled at his sides.
I swallowed hard, but the lump in my throat wouldn't budge.
None of us could speak.
Bell's face crumpled.
"Did I say it too soon?" Her voice broke. "Do you... do you not love me back?"
The fear in her eyes—the belief that she'd ruined everything—nearly killed me.
I stepped forward and took her trembling hands in mine.
"Holly is correct. You do need outside help."
Her face fell, and I pulled her into my arms before she could spiral.
"Because, Bell, if you are not aware of how much we love you, how very much we've loved you from the absolute start and no matter what you do..." I let a bit of my mostly dead Jamaican accent slip through for my last line. "Gyal, you mad fi' true!"
It wasn't the longest or most eloquent speech I'd ever given—hardly the stuff of Cicero—but as I always advised my students: sometimes the simplest argument is the strongest, if it makes your audience feel your main thesis point.
Bell most definitely felt mine.
Her face crumpled again—not in sadness this time, but in relief so profound it looked like pain.
"You... you love me?" Her voice broke. "All of you?"
"From the start," I confirmed.
"Even when I was a mess?"
"Especially then," Boone growled, stepping forward.
Then tears filled her eyes.
"Oh, Zion!" She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. "Boy, I love you!"
She turned to Boone, tears still in her eyes. "I love you. Thank you so much for rescuing me."
"It's the other way around." Boone stepped forward to sweep her into his huge arms so that her feet were dangling off the ground. "You rescued me, and you're fucking perfect. But if you need other people to help you see that, I'm driving you to Vancouver every weekend. My girl does not ride the bus."
"Boone." She laughed through her tears and shook her head at him before kissing him. "I love you. I love you so much. Can you set me down, though, so I can say the same thing to Ravik?"
He did, and I could feel the vibrating thrum of our first maul's heart as she turned to look up at him.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for fighting on my behalf in every way. Thank you for reminding me that the three of you are mine. Thank you for making it easy to choose the bears."
