I fell on top of him, letting him wrap his arms around me, resting my ear over his heart and listening to each fast thump of his heartbeat.
He rubbed the back of my head as we caught our breath. Just as his breathing evened out, he whispered. “Move in with me.”
I blinked a couple of times, waiting to make sure I’d heard him right. A million different ideas of what he could’ve said ran through my mind as I tried to convince myself I’d simply heard him wrong. “What?”
“Move in with me, Moon. You already have a lot of stuff here. I could get Olivia and Kelly to help move your other things. We could sleep together every night, wake up together every morning… It’d be nice, don’t you think?”
My arms were too jelly for me to prop myself up on, or I’d be staring into his soul, making sure that he meant what he was saying. “You want me to live with you?”
“Oh, baby.” He held me tighter, pulling me even closer. “I want you to live with me until the end of fucking time. I wasn’t joking when I told my family I was going to marry you one day. That was a promise.”
I closed my eyes, listening to the muffled sounds of him breathing. Listening to the very heart I loved and wanted to share the weight of until the day mine stopped beating. “Of course I’ll move in with you, Daddy. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
“And are you going to say yes when I ask you to marry me?”
“Hmm,” I pretended to think about it for a second. “No.”
“Wait, what?” He tried to get up, but I went limp on him, crushing him with my full weight.
Shaking my head, I shushed him. “Calm down. I won’t say yes, because I’m going to be the one to propose. You’ve already proposed to someone once before.”
I could feel him relax beneath me, huffing a laugh. “I guess we’ll see who does it first. You’re such a fucking brat.”
Yeah, but I washisbrat. His brat from now until the end of time.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Since when didI have so much shit? I’d only lived in my apartment for five years. It wasn’t even a big one, either. I’d just somehow accumulated enough stuff to make it seem like two other people lived here. Honestly, I was grateful Olivia and Kelly were so eager to help me pack. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it at all. I would’ve just thrown it all away and started new, which didn’t sound too good to my bank account, but I was still seriously considering it.
After taping up another box, I fell to the ground, fanning myself by pulling on my shirt collar over and over. Moving around so much had me sweating up a storm, drops of it falling from my forehead and into my eyes. I groaned, swiping at them, which made no actual difference, seeing as my hands were sweaty too.
“You doing okay there, Moon?” Olivia was standing beside me, looking down with an eyebrow raised.
I waved my hand in the air, dismissing her concern. “I’m good. Just hot and tired and frustrated that I apparently have been living like this is a four-person household instead of one.”
She lowered to sit next to me, holding her knees to her chest. “That’s usually how it goes, though, isn’t it? I remember when I moved out of the house Emerson and I shared. I swear I had enough clothes for a whole family of sixteen.”
“Now you have enough for three more generations.” Kelly set a box on top of the one I’d just taped shut. “I can’t say I understand the need for so many.”
Olivia pouted, her bottom lip sticking out a little. “It’s important to look and feel cute. You’re the one who hypes up all my outfits, so don’t act all innocent in this.”
I leaned back on my palms, looking between the two. “Is this an ongoing argument between the two of you?”
Kelly laughed, sitting on her knees in front of us. “I wouldn’t say it’s an argument, but I have a closet of clothes, whereas Ol has two. Just saying.”
Grinning, I watched as Olivia’s glare turned soft with a gentle shake of her head. I wondered how long it would take before Em and I started arguing about how many clothes we each had. Or about what we wanted for dinner. Or about me leaving my shoes right where he could trip over them.
I’d once been in the middle of an argument between Elio and Crescent about who drank the last of the milk right before Crescent was going to use some to make pancakes. There were a lot of sighs and eye rolls, but in the end, they’d both taken me along for a ride to the store for some more. When we all got back into the car, Elio leaned over the console and kissed Crescent, whispering something about forest green paint that made Crescent blush.
Thatwas the kind of love I was excited about. When the mundane no longer felt mundane because I was spending it with someone who made every day feel exciting and fulfilling. We’d eventually bicker about shit that didn’t truly matter because we were human. But we would get to be human together. Every day, from now until the end of time and even beyond. Our hearts wouldn’t know how to beat without the other, just as it was always meant to be. A rule, written in invisible stone since the beginning of time. I knew we were born to love each other since the beginning of time; we just had to wait a while to find each other.
We didn’t wait patiently, but we didn’t wait eagerly, either. We had no idea what our future would hold, or that our future was each other. Our future was our hands, bound together with metal spirals, tough enough to last a lifetime, never rusting, never breaking. A piece of the cage that once held me back would keep me free. Free with him until eternity.
After a bit, Kelly groaned as she shifted and pointed to the boxes behind her. “That was the last box. Are you excited?”
Beautiful, rapid butterflies swam in my gut as I stared at the stacks and stacks of boxes surrounding us. My apartment was so empty, aside from the furniture. There were only a couple more things to do, and then I’d be moving in with my Daddy. “More than I can even say. I can’t believe it, honestly.”
“I get it.” Olivia patted my knee. “Loving Emerson was the best thing I ever did. He’s a good man. The best, actually. I’ll always be grateful for what we had, and I’m especially grateful and excited for you to experience that, too. I owe him a lot.”
