“I’m sure she’d appreciate that.”
We walk toward his truck together and as he opens the passenger door I realize something that feels both simple and huge at the same time.For the first time in a long time, I’m not wondering if I’m enough for someone.I’m not trying to be the person someone else wants.
I’m just me.And Damien looks at me like that’s exactly who he hoped I would be.
He starts the truck and glances over.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
“Good.”
I smile softly.“Actually...”I reach over and take his hand.“I’m more than okay.”
Because sometimes the right person doesn’t arrive with fireworks.Sometimes they show up quietly.They wait patiently.They stand beside you when things fall apart.And when the dust settles...
You realize they were the one who was meant to be there all along.
Chapter Twenty-One
After The Date
Damien
The engine of my truck goes quiet and neither of us moves.The headlights cut across the front of my house, washing the porch in pale light, and for a second everything feels suspended, like something is about to happen and we both know it.
Quinn exhales slowly beside me.“This was a good night,” she says.
“It was.”
But the words are too simple and too small for what tonight actually was.For what every night with her is.
I walk around the truck before she can reach for the handle.An old habit or a taught instinct but it doesn’t matter because something about her makes me want to do things right even when I’m barely holding myself together doing them.
When I open her door, she looks right at me and that’s when everything shifts.Because she doesn’t just take my hand to step down, she holds it.Her fingers tighten around mine when her boots hit the gravel, and suddenly she’s standing closer than she needs to be.Close enough that I can feel the warmth of her through both our jackets.Close enough that if either of us leans forward even a little...
