“I do,” she replies breathlessly. “Although you’re more than I could ever deserve, my heart belongs to you.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” I reprimand before kissing her. “You totally deserve me.”
Sophie giggles, and I kiss her one more time. When I pull back, I keep my face close to hers. “I love you, Sophie. Somehow you’re my destiny, and I’m right where I’m supposed to be. Knowing that you would be my end prize, I’d step in and save you a thousand times out of a thousand. I’d go through pain over and over if it meant I got you in the end.”
Okay… too much.
Sophie starts crying, and while I know they’re tears of happiness, I also know my declaration brings up heavy memories that have caused her guilt and pain in the past.
“You’re mine, Sophie. You always have been, just as I’ve always been yours. We are meant to be.”
She nods as I wipe tears from her cheeks. “I hate what you went through. I hate what you lost. But I can’t help but be glad how it all turned out.”
This time it’s Sophie who leans into me, placing her mouth on mine for a soft kiss full of tenderness, hope, and promise.
When she pulls away, I’m slightly dazed. Maybe it’s still partly the head cold or maybe it’s because knowing that Sophie loves me feels like getting hit by a ton of bricks—in the best possible way—but I’m dizzy with emotion and what this all means.
It means… I’ve found the one.
She’s my forever.
Dropping my hands from her face, I wrap my arms around her and draw her in. I hold her, smelling her hair and committing this all to memory.
The first day of my new life.
“You have to meet my parents,” Sophie says.
“And you have to meet mine,” I say, thinking of all the things we have ahead of us. “Should we get a bigger place, or do you want to stay in your house?” Before she can answer, I exclaim, “I’ll buy us an old Victorian, and you can remodel it.”
Sophie laughs. “So much to decide, but we have all the time in the world.” She glances back at the bed, and then turns her eyes to me with a seductive rasp to her voice. “We could celebrate these new declarations in bed.”
Fuck yeah. Head cold be damned. I start to walk her back to the mattress, but then immediately stop. “Shit,” I growl. “We can’t. I’ve got to go handle some shit. Coen Highsmith got arrested, and it’s on the news.”
“Oh, wow,” she murmurs. “Well, um… are you sure I should stay?”
“You must stay,” I reply, brushing my lips over her knuckles. “One simply doesn’t exchange I love you’s and then fly back to Pittsburgh.”
“Okay… I’ll wait—”
I pivot toward the bathroom and tug her along. “You’ll take a shower with me.”
“You have time?” she asks, following willingly.
“Not really,” I reply, fully intent on texting Gage that I need half an hour. This shit with Coen can wait.
But first, I pull Sophie into me one more time.
Just one more kiss.
A tight hug.
Another declaration. “Right where we’re supposed to be.”
It’s become our mantra.
She sighs and melts into me. “Right where we’re supposed to be.”