"You’re not alone," he tells me, softly, and I swear that my heart swells in my chest as soon as I hear those words out of his mouth. I’m not sure how he can say that and mean it, but I know that he does. Whatever it is that’s between us, however short-lived it is, is real. And I can’t fight how good it feels to hear him say that to me.
"I know it’s not the same thing, but I get how you feel, at least a little," he explains. "My sister and her husband, they got married and had their daughter Tallie, and ever since then, I feel as though I’ve been just...thinking about what comes next for me. What I’m meant to be doing with my life. I see what they have, and I want it for myself. I want to have that kind of stability. I want to have someone to come home to."
"I know what you mean," I reply, and our eyes lock – and though neither of us will come out and say it, I know that we are both thinking it.
Maybe it is the champagne, maybe it is the romance of this night, or maybe it’s something else entirely, but we can both see that we are the answers to each other’s problems.
We can both see that as clear as day, but neither of us is willing to admit it out loud.
At least, not yet.
I take another sip of my champagne and close my eyes, letting my head lean back against the back of the hot tub. The warm water is still lapping peacefully around my body, and, in the distance, I can see the glittering ocean.
And I feel, in this moment, that this is exactly where I am meant to be.
Chapter Seven
Ethan
When I wake the next morning, the first thing I hear is her soft breath next to me. And I smile before I turn over, knowing that I am going to be able to see her gorgeous face first thing, and knowing that it is about the best way that I could possibly start my day.
Sure enough, there she is. Her blonde hair splayed out over the pillow beside me like a sunrise, her lips slightly parted as she rests peacefully. She looks younger when she is asleep, as though the weight of the world that she is always carrying on her shoulders has temporarily cut her some slack.
Last night was perfect. Every moment of it. We sat up and talked in the hot tub for hours, and then retreated to bed, where we lay in the dark beside one another, held each other close and whispered as though we were worried that someone was going to overhear us. She dozed off eventually, and I lay there next to her, watching her sleep, wondering just what I had done to deserve such a perfect woman in my bed.
She had opened up to me last night, about losing her parents, and I remembered what my sister had said and had been as gentle with her as I possibly could be. I know that I don’t have the same losses in my life, but it feels as though the two of us are looking for the same thing. That the two of us are searching for someone to make our lives feel full, even when everything else feels like it has no grounding around us.
And I know that’s a good sign. Maybe that’s why I felt so drawn to her the first time I saw her, because I could sense that we were looking for the same thing. Now that I know it’s true, I’m going to do everything I can to prove to her that I’m the person to fill that gap in her life. And, hopefully, she can see that she’s the one to fill it in mine.
Her eyes open slowly, a little bleary from sleep, and she smiles as soon as she sees me.
"Well, hey," she murmurs, and I reach over to pull her against me, planting a kiss on her forehead.
"Well, hey, yourself," I reply, and she nestles her body against mine. I can’t get over how perfectly we fit together. It doesn’t seem to matter how we shifted in the night, I would always wake up with her pressed against me like she was filling a gap that I hadn’t even known was there.
She’s still sleepy, and I can feel how much she just wants to stay in bed – it's a Sunday, so she has nowhere to be. She could lie here with me all day if she wanted to. I sure hope she does, because I can’t think of much better right now than spending the rest of the day in bed with her.
"You want to get something to eat?" she asks me.