Finally free to live.
Finally free.
When we pull back, I'm still holding the charm between my fingers, caressing the diamond with the pad of my thumb.
I swallow.
I have to ask it. To be sure. "Is there anyone else? I don't want to disrupt your life if you're dating someone."
His face shifts immediately, serious and steady.
"I told you that I'd wait for you as long as you needed," he says. "I'm no liar. I waited because you are my only one."
Those three words echo in my mind.
My only one.
At first, those words ache painfully, nearly ripping a jagged cry from me. But then, my chest loosens as if something suffocating gives way. And the words settle deep, striking my heart with a beautiful jolt.
My only one.
I've never been someone's only one.
"You waited for me? Really waited for me."
"I'm not interested in anyone else," he says simply, knowing what those words will mean to me.
I rest my forehead against his chest.
"I didn't want to come back and wreck it if you had built something."
"Not possible," he says with a pop of that dimple showing. "You're the only one I want to build anything with."
A soft sigh escapes as I lean in and brush a kiss to his dimple, making my way along his jawline and up to his mouth. Not urgent this time. Just gentle, confident, certain.
The music shifts into something sultry and slower.
"Dance with me?" he says, brushing the back of his hand along my jaw.
"Here? Now?"
"Yeah."
He doesn't wait for my answer. He just pulls me gently to my feet and crushes me into his body. One hand lands low on my waist, while the other laces through my fingers. We sway in the dim corner of the VIP lounge, slow and sensuous.
My cheek rests against his chest, the lump of the pendant beneath me.
"I can't believe you found and kept this."
"I needed something to give me hope, Amelia," he says quietly. "Something that reminded me of you. That we were real."
I tilt my head back to look into his ice blue eyes. "We were real. We are."
I smile, and for the first time in a long time, the future feels limitless.
We move as one. Not merely reunited, but moving forward. This last year was a pause, nothing more. A chance to catch my breath. Not an ending. Never.
After a few minutes, he rests his chin on my head.
