He takes in a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair. “Okay,” he exhales, taking a seat on the couch. Leaving our piles and boxes strewn across the living room floor, I join him, feeling a combination of nervousness and readiness.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything?” I laugh nervously. “What was she like? Where was she from? How did you meet?”
Levi smirks. “So everything?”
I nod, giving him the space to speak openly.
“Well, we met at our old firehouse. She was a recruit...”
He smiles as he tells me the story and begins opening up more than he ever has before about his life in Oregon. He doesn’t only tell me about her, but about the rest of the crew that he left behind, and what they were like. His gaze lifts upward, moving around as if tracking a scene in his mind while he recalls memories of some of the wild calls they all went out on together.
I sit and listen to him, story after story, captivated, and hanging on to every word.
“What did she look like?” I ask after trying to picture it all in my mind, realizing I’ve never seen a picture.
He sighs and pulls out his phone. It doesn’t surprise me that he has pictures of her, but what does is my eagerness to see her. A woman I’ve never met who once held my place in Levi and Ellie’s life. He hands me the phone slowly.
“Wow,” I whisper, taking it from him. “She was beautiful.”
I lift my gaze from the picture to him, and he smiles that sad smile I wish I could fix for him, but understand only time can. He looks down at the picture as if seeing her for the first time.
“Her eyes were as brown as the soil where we planned to stick our roots,” he says softly. “Where we dreamed of settling down and having a family. Her skin was permanently kissed by the sun, and in her curves, where she fit with mine, were the valleys I called home.”
I look over her picture one more time before handing it back. He puts it away and wipes his palms against his jeans.
“You know,” I say, a smile slowly forming. “You’d never guess it by looking at you, but sometimes you say some really poetic shit.”
He barks out a surprised laugh and grabs his chest. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult.”
“That depends on the quality of love letters you write me from here on out,” I tease, before turning serious again. “She sounds like she was an incredible woman.”
He nods slowly and shrugs, as if there’s no weight behind the words at all.
“She was,” he says, like it’s simply the truth and nothing more, before pulling my hand to his lips and kissing each of my fingers. “I’m not trying to upset you,” he says, his voice gentle, almost careful.
I grin, because I understand why he’d worry, but I know I’m the one who holds his heart now. This is his truth, and he’s trusting me with it.
“I’m not upset. I’m happy you shared that with me,” I tell him honestly. “I could never be jealous of the woman who saved your life. I’m grateful for her.”
His lips part as he exhales, the tightness around his jaw and eyes loosening.
“I’m grateful that she loved you. To be loved like that? It’s a gift. One that she gave with her last breath. You and I met exactly when we were meant to, and it’s thanks to her thatIget to love you.”
His eyes shimmer. He clears his throat and pinches the bridge of his nose, fighting back tears before smiling back at me.
“You love me?” he asks, reminding me of how I said the same thing when he told me.
“Trust me,” I drawl dramatically with a chuckle. “I tried evenhardernot to.”
He laughs and pulls me onto his lap as I squeal.
“You’re hilarious,” he says playfully, pulling my face down and pressing his lips to mine over and over.
He peppers me with kisses, nudging his face into my neck, his nose and beard tickling me, making me giggle as he goes until he stops, pulling back to look at me with a silly grin filled with love. My pulse races and my stomach flutters under his gaze. For the first time in my life, I’m filled with a warmth that wraps around me, making me feel happy and whole.
As though he can sense the shift inside me, he tilts his head just a fraction, eyes warming, and I feel the affection radiating from him without a word. He raises his hand slowly, pushing the hair from my face. He wraps his hand around the back of my head, and as he threads it through my hair, he pulls me back in for a kiss full of passion. We’re lost in a moment that belongs only to us as everything else melts away. I can feel his heartbeat through my chest, a mirror of my own as they find a rhythm all their own. His lips move firmly over mine, pressing, pulling, and tugging, as my body trembles beneath his hands while they roam my body. A deep groan escapes him as he pulls away, reluctantly, leaving his forehead resting against mine.
