“And it was the best week of my life.”
Silence crashes between us. People move around us in the terminal, boarding announcements echoing in the background, but I barely hear any of it. All I see is Fern.
Tears shimmer in her eyes. “I couldn’t stay,” she whispers. “Jackson… I live three thousand miles away.”
“So?”
“So it’s not realistic!”
“I don’t give a damn about realistic.”
She stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “You’d leave everything here?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes.”
Her voice breaks. “Why?”
The word punches straight through my chest, because the truth is simple. “Because I love you.”
The words hang between us. Fern freezes, and her eyes fill with tears. “You?—”
“I love you,” I repeat. “And you’re not getting on that plane without me.”
Her breath shudders. “I was trying to make it easier.”
“Easier for who?”
“For you,” she whispers.
I shake my head. “Leaving would’ve been the worst damn thing you could’ve done to me.”
She looks down. “I didn’t think you’d want to give up your life here.”
I reach for her hands. “My life isn’t here. It’s wherever you are.”
A tear slips down her cheek. I wipe it away with my thumb.
“Fern.”
Her voice trembles. “I love you too.”
The words hit me like a freight train. Relief floods my chest so hard I almost laugh. “Good,” I say roughly. “Because I already bought the ticket.”
Her eyebrows lift. “You what?”
“We’re boarding.”
She glances toward the gate. “But—what about your stuff? Your apartment? Your job?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You’re serious?”
“Dead serious.”
