Page 105 of Saving Wyatt

I shushed him. I didn’t want to talk about death. I’d been living it for four years. I wanted to live. I wanted to love. I was ready to be human and be vulnerable with another person. I didn’t want to think of something as inevitable and as unpredictable as death.

“How could I when I found love twice?” I said, but what I didn’t say, because I didn’t want to burden him with it, was that I didn’t need to find love again. I’d found enough love to last me a lifetime. To be content and fulfilled until the very bitter end.

But I didn’t say it. I’d rather focus on our life together. Not our eventual demise. If losing Evan had taught me anything, that was to appreciate what I had while I had it. To live for the now, not a potential future.

“And you promise something too,” I said.

“What? Anything for you.”

I took a deep breath and licked my lip before I said, “That you won’t shy away from love and happiness again. No matter what happens to us.”

He put a finger to my lips and shushed me. “Nothing will happen to us⁠—”

“I know, but I’m just say⁠—”

“Nothing will happen to us, and I promise I’ll spend every day making you happy.”

“I want you to be happy, silly.”

“I will be if you are.”

I blinked and stilled my beating heart before it ripped out of my chest.

How could he be so perfect?

“Okay then. Deal.” I offered him my pinkie and waited until he locked his with mine. Then I kissed him.

“God, I love you. I hope you don’t regret me,” he said, leaning a little closer.

“Never!” I all but shouted. I wanted to get it in his head that I wasn’t settling. That I loved him as much as he did me. That I wanted this just as much.

“What on earth are you going to do with this old man?”

I rolled my eyes and kissed him again. “For starters, I’ll make love to him. A lot!” I pierced him with my gaze. He smirked. “Then, we’ll rebuild his house.”

“I’d like that,” he said. “But a little correction. Not my house. Our house.”

“Our house,” I said. “And then maybe travel? See the world?”

“I’d like that,” he replied. “You can take me to Greece. To your home.”

I chuckled.

“What? What’s so funny?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. Just…you’re my home, silly. This place. I know it seems crazy to feel like this considering how long we’ve known each other and how long I’ve been here, but…this feels right. It feels destined. Like I’m right where I need to be.”

“That is funny.” He smiled. “That’s how I feel too.”

This time, he leaned in for a kiss, but I didn’t quite let him go. I held on to him. I kissed him back. Each lash of our tongues brought us closer to each other until we were in each other’s arms, standing, in the middle of the dining room, being content with each other, with life.

Then the bathroom door opened and we pulled away. Not out of shame. Not out of fear, like Wyatt would have done only yesterday, but out of respect for our roommate.

“Oh hey. Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt whatever this was,” Warren said, waving a hand in front of him aimed at us.

“Nothing you haven’t done before,” I said.

Warren gasped and put his hand to his chest.