Page 373 of Safe With You

My eyes lifted to Ellis.

“You went back.”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“A while ago.”

I looked down at it again.

I remembered standing in that little stationery shop with the journal in my hands. Telling him the words on the cover were something I said to myself whenever everything started feeling like too much.

I remembered putting it back.

I didn’t remember asking him to remember any of it.

Something tightened behind my ribs.

“You remembered.”

His expression softened.

“Of course I remembered.”

I pressed my lips together and ran my thumb over the words.

One thing at a time.

The same words I’d told myself more times than I could count. When I was overwhelmed. When there was too much in front of me and I needed to make everything smaller.

Except lately, they hadn’t felt quite as necessary.

And somehow, that made the journal mean even more.

I looked at him.

“You know I’m trying really hard not to get emotional, right?”

His mouth curved.

“Ellis.”

He laughed, and I stepped around the counter before I could think too much about what I was doing.

His arms came around me as soon as mine wrapped around him.

I held on a little tighter than the gift probably called for, because it wasn’t really about the journal. It was that I wanted something, put it back, and Ellis noticed anyway.

“Thank you,” I said against his chest.

His hand moved slowly over my back.

“You’re welcome.”

I pulled away, still holding the journal.

“How long have you had this?”