“Stay with me, Riley. Every day and every night. Let me love you and show you that I am capable of giving a lot…giving you everything. And I will. For you. For you both. Because I’ve never given anyone what I’m willing to give you now. I’ve always been yours, even when I didn’t know you. Let me take care of my family from the start, because you’re my whole life now. All I want is to have you with me and make sure that no one touches you or makes you suffer, that no one tries to take you away from me in any way.”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“I want you to move in with me. Today.”
“Is that an order, by any chance?”
“We can find another place, somewhere you like.”
“Don’t you think we’re rushing things a bit?”
I take her hands and bring them to my heart.
“Can you feel that?”
She nods just slightly as my heart beats wildly against her palm.
“That’s what you’ve done to me. You’ve given me everything I needed and now I want to do the same. I want to give you a house, a place where you’ll feel loved every fucking day. A place where you don’t have to hide, where you can be whatever you want to be. A place where I can see you as you really are and you can see me, always. Because I swear, I’ll never hold back again. I want to give you my life and my heart…Well, to be honest, you’ve already got it. It’s yours. Your name is written on it and I’ve used permanent ink.”
I smile before biting my lip.
“It’ll be fine. I’m not going anywhere and I won’t lie to you again. I’ll breathe in all of your tears and your smiles and I’ll always find you when you try to hide, because my heart will know where you are. You just have to trust me, Riley. Will you do it?”
She takes my hands and brings them to her heart.
Yes, she will.
Hell yes, she will.
