“It was after the tattoo. That next morning, when I’d thought I’d lost you. Thought you’d never get past it. Thought all we had was gone. I woke up, and you were stroking my head softly. Gently. Lovingly. You were giving me that. You had it in you to give me that, after everything. After I’d let you down so completely, failed you so totally. You still had it in you to give me that. No one has ever shown me that, the love that was in that simple gesture.”
“Cole, please. Stop talking,” she whispered, tears seeping from her eyes, across her temple, into her hair.
His thumb brushed at them. “Can’t, babe. Gotta say it. You gotta know. You had me, in that one moment, in that one gesture. I was yours, completely.”
Her hands slid up to cup his face, and she pulled him down until his mouth settled over hers.