“I’d like you to talk to the girls up front and they will line up your next series of scans and bloodwork. I want to see you back in three months, but for now, I want you all to celebrate. I want you to live your lives and love your family. Because times like this, what you’ve gone through, it reminds us of what’s important. People tend to forget those things. Life grabs hold of us and tosses us around, we get wrapped up in the world, what’s going on, what we can’t change. We lose track of the little things.”
“We do.” My father finally lifts his head and I swallow past my own emotions when I see his red-rimmed eyes and his tearstained cheeks.
We spend a few more minutes talking with the doctor, but as we walk out my father is laughing and my mother and him are holding hands.
I don’t know if I’m imagining things, but I swear the two of them seemed to have leaped back in time twenty years. They both seem so vibrant and full of life.
And I can’t stop watching them.
I feel like I’m floating myself and as we make it to our cars and I climb into mine, there is one person I want to hear on the opposite end of my phone.
Dialing her number she answers on the second ring and I can tell she is hanging on the edge of her seat.
“Where are you?”
“At home,” she says in a rush. “I just got here.”
“I’m on my way.” I end the call. I need to see her. I need to be holding her when I finally let it all go.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Sophie
I pace the living room,stopping every so often to peek out the front window. My nerves are running around like little ping-pong balls in a hurricane. I can’t think straight.
When I hear a light knock on the front door I run, tripping over the edge of the rug and practically face-planting into the door. With a quick regrouping, I open it and stare at Finn on the opposite side. He has his hands pushed down into his front pockets, his feet slightly apart, and as he rocks back on his heels he lifts his gaze to meet mine. I am on pins and needles, my heart racing as I wait.
A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth and emotions hit me hard. Tears pool in my eyes as he pulls his hands free and steps close. Cupping my face in his hands he brings his lips to mine and I grip his shirt tightly allowing him to show me everything he is feeling.
I know this is hard, I know it’s been a tremendously difficult trip for him and his parents. I also know that Finn has had trouble processing everything from the start. But lately I’ve begun seeing a side of him I didn’t know existed. An emotionally invested side and the man, he feels everything so deep.
“I love you.” He says this with his mouth pressed to mine hard. “It’s fast, I know, and unexpected and I’m not just saying it because of what’s happened. I am saying it because I need you to know it. I need you to understand that I’ve loved you far longer than since you and I became a thing but now I am in love with you. You have no idea what you’ve done for me, no idea how you managed to pull me up when I didn’t know I needed it. You rescued me when I had no idea I was struggling. You saved me, Sophie,” he whispers, “you save me.”
Slowly he drags his hand down, over my shoulders, along my sides and around my waist. Cupping my butt he lifts and I go with ease. With no effort at all, he holds me as I wrap my legs around his waist.
“I regret not coming for you sooner,” he confesses. “All this time, time you spent with men that didn’t deserve you. I want to be the man you deserve, Soph. I don’t ever want you to struggle again.”
My heart is melted, my chest is tight.
“I’m sorry it took this long for me to come for you.”
I cup his face, pulling him in for another kiss. I can’t speak, the words feel as though they are lodged in my throat. So many things are running through my mind, so many thoughts and dreams and at this point I have no idea how to get them all out.
So instead, I get lost in him, letting Finn slowly heal the ache I feel inside.
Still holding me he begins to walk down the hallway until we are just outside my door. He pauses, passing my back to the wall, seeing me deeply. His tongue dances with mine, his hands still holding me securely. He pushes forward and I can feel his hardness pressing against me. He shifts, and I gasp, giving him the chance to pull back and watch my reaction.
“You are so beautiful,” he says as he leans in to kiss me once again before continuing on into my bedroom.
Lowering me to the bed, he grips the back of his shirt and pulls it up and over his head, tossing it to the floor. Watching him, he brings his hands to his buckle, slowing undoing the clasp before moving on to his jeans.
I am in awe as I carefully start to do the same.
First my shirt, then my pants, both joining the pile now accumulating on my bedroom floor.
Climbing onto the mattress, he positions himself between my legs and again kisses me. Gently at first, then he nibbles on my lower lip and I part them. His tongue tastes my lower lip, as if to soothe the spot he’d just nibbled.
Very little separating us, he continues to shift against me and I do the same, triggering a moan to fall from his lips.
