Because whether I like it or not or was even ready for it, I’ve fallen in love with Bexley Hart. This woman with the big heart that she doesn’t show the world. Somehow, I’m the lucky bastard she’s opened herself up to.
Brushing her hair off her face, I lean close, whispering in her ear. “Want to cook something? Maybe it’ll be like she’s here with us.”
Clasping my cheeks in her hands, Bex gives me a tender, heart-wrenching kiss. I can taste her tears there.
“That sounds like the perfect idea.”
I follow her into the kitchen to get out all the ingredients we need for dinner. Bex is quiet as she hands things to me and turns on the gas stove to start the chicken. It seems unfair that we have to head back to the real world tomorrow. All I want to do is stay here with her. Make this place our home and never leave.
I know we can’t. But it doesn’t mean I won’t cherish every single second of our time.
The two of us work together like a well-known dance, like this is something we do together all the time. It’s something that I spend more and more of my days thinking about. How Bex and I could have this permanently. Not just for a few short weeks, but longer.
Forever?
Is it too much to hope for that the two of us could have forever?
“Nick?” Bex breaks into my thoughts, pausing her cooking of the chicken.
“Yeah?”
I drop the knife, bits of garlic and onion messily chopped up on the cutting board. Bex is staring up at me, her tears gone. A smile of contentment is etched onto her face.
“Thank you. For this. I know it might seem silly, but this means a lot to me.”
My hands are covered in garlic, but I don’t care. Wrapping my arms around Bex, I tug her close and drop my forehead to hers.
“I will give you whatever you need, Bex. Always. Because…”
Should I tell her? Tell her I love her? That she’s stolen my heart and I never want it back? Maybe it was always destined to be only hers, but there is no other person in this world that I’ll ever feel this way about.
Fuck it. Life is short.
“I love you, Bex. I don’t care if it’s too soon or if you need more time, but I have to tell you.”
“Oh, Nick.”
The smile on Bex’s face tells me everything I need to know before she kisses me. The kind that seals our love together in a way that will never be torn apart.
I’m thankful every damn day we ended up in that bar together. I don’t know what I would do if I were to miss out on this with Bex.
Maybe we needed the guise of helping each other to get over our fears. Or maybe it’s that we could only be ourselves with each other. That we felt safe enough to be our true selves.
“You are the most kind, gentle soul I have ever met, Nick. I don’t think my mother would have found anyone more perfect for me than you, and that’s why I know she would love you like I do.”
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. “You love me?”
“Of course I do. How could I not?”
I steal a quick kiss from her. “I love you, Bex.”
“I love you too, Nick.”
Ignoring the fact that dinner is cooking, I give her a slow, teasing kiss. One that tells her exactly how much I love her. That everything about her is what I want and need in life.
How did I ever get so lucky to find this woman?
Popping from the stove breaks our kiss, much to my dismay.
