“Yes,” I say quietly. “And I love him. I love him so much it’s worth the risk to our friendship and our families because now that I have him, I can’t imagine a world where I don’t. Where I don’t get to kiss him and hold his hand and be with him in this way.” I think back on the night, and the tears I’ve been holding at bay spill down my cheeks. “He told me there is so much inside of him for me, and it’s like he took the words right from my own heart because the way I love him?” I shake my head as my tears keep falling. “It’s big and important and life-changing and everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve only ever wanted him. Sometimes I don’t know how it’s possible a heart can hold this much and still keep beating. I want to be his future. His forever. Because I know without one single doubt he’s mine.”
“Sophie.”
I jolt in my seat, practically dropping the phone at Tyler’s voice. Whipping my head to where he stands right outside thepassenger door, I look through the window I forgot I’d left open and straight into his eyes—deep pools of blue swirling with emotion and a love so huge I forget how to breathe. He steps forward, opening the door and taking my hand, pulling me from the car.
Without a word, he takes the phone and ends the call, shoving it into his pocket before wrapping an arm around my waist, his free hand coming up to rest on my cheek. “Sophie,” he says again, his voice low, almost reverent, as he traces his thumb over my skin, my bottom lip, before bringing his mouth to mine under the dark night sky.
Sliding his hand back into my hair, Tyler cups the back of my head as our mouths move together, his tongue gliding along the seam of my lips, a deep rumble coming from his chest as I open for him and he dives inside. His tongue strokes along mine and his taste and scent surround me, and I wonder how it’s possible that every kiss we share feels different. New, somehow.
Earlier tonight the kisses were sweet and then frenzied, full of fun and want and the dark heat of desire.
This kiss is something else.
This kiss feels like worship.
It’s hands and lips and teeth and tongues. It’sthisandyouandalwaysandforever.
This kiss is a joining of hearts and a melding of souls and two people who have known each other their entire lives, stepping into the unknown to write a new part of their story together.
It’s exhilarating and terrifying and joyful and everything I ever wanted and didn’t think I would ever get to have.
I can’t get enough of it.
Of him.
I could stand here forever.
“Holy shit,” Tyler says quietly, easing back and leaning his forehead against mine.
“Yeah,” is all I can come up with to say, words and words and words swirling around in my head. Three words.
I love you.
“Me too,” Tyler says softly, reading my mind as he strokes my cheeks with his thumbs and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I want to give you words, Soph. So many words. But will you come with me first?”
I nod. “Anywhere.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SOPHIE
“Tyler,” I breathe out, my heart squeezing as I take in the backyard. The firepit is on, smoke curling up into the star-studded sky. Our striped blanket is spread out over our sacred stretch of grass, pillows strewn over top. The fountain sodas we stopped for on the way over sit in a drink container off to the side, and the blanket is strewn with snacks. Jelly beans and Tyler’s favorite gummy worms and the potato chips and pretzels I like to eat together whenever I’m in a snacky mood are all lined up, waiting for us to tear into them.
I know without him having to say a word that he did this to try and replace the memory of the night I saw him here with someone else, and I look up at him, sure that no one has ever been this in love before. “You didn’t have to do this.”
Coming to stand in front of me, Tyler slides his hands around either side of my neck, bending to kiss one of my cheeks. The other. “I did. This is our place. I hate that our story started when you saw me here with someone else. I can’t make you unsee what you saw, but I wanted to give this place back to you. To us.”
Oh, my heart.
Undone, I lift up, pressing my mouth to his. “Our story didn’t start that night. I don’t think it ever actually started at all. It just was. Is. Always has been. That night opened my eyes, the same way the morning you walked in on me opened yours. One way or another, we were always going to end up here.”
Tyler smiles, leaning down and laying his forehead on mine again, his hands on my cheeks. “I love you, Sophie,” he says, and at his words, my heart simply takes flight. “I’ve always loved you, but it’s different now. It’s more. It’s everything. You are my most important person. My best friend in the world. My future and my forever.”
He repeats the words I spoke out loud in the car when I didn’t know he was listening, and my heart beats with the deepest love. My eyes blur with tears I blink back so I can see him clearly. I don’t want to miss a thing. Tyler’s deep blue eyes are steady on mine, a hand still cupping my cheek and an arm around my waist, drawing me closer to him. The perfect spring air wraps itself around us, swirling with just a hint of the summer to come. The world is silent. Still. It’s just Tyler and me and the darkness of night, and I know I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my days.
Reaching up, I brush some hair off his forehead, my fingers trailing down, tracing his stubbled jaw before cupping his cheek in my hand. When he leans into my touch, my heart squeezes with love, every part of me full of tenderness for this sweet, gentle, most amazing man who unbelievably, astonishingly, somehow, belongs to me. “I love you, too. So much, Tyler.” I use my thumb to brush away the tear that falls from the corner of his eye, and the love that fills my chest is overwhelming in its enormity. “I didn’t know it could feel like this either,” I say, repeating his words from earlier tonight. “So…” I trail off, unable to form a complete thought, and I wonder if maybe some feelings are so huge they are simply indescribable.
“Perfect,” Tyler says, leaning down and pressing his lips to mine.
