Mama lifted me onto her bed. DeeDee left the room, and I heard my daddy’s voice downstairs, muffled with others. Thoughts were scrambling through my head, but I dared not get my hopes up. Yet I wanted so badly for those hopes to come true.
“You ready, baby?” my mama asked.
“Yes,” I replied breathlessly.
I hung on to my mama as we walked down the stairs and made for the front door. As we rounded the corner, my daddy and my sisters, who were all gathered in the hall, all looked my way.
Then, although I felt weak, my mama brought me to the door. There, leaning against the doorway, was Rune. He had a spray of cherry blossoms in his hand … and he was wearing a tux.
My heart splintered with light.
He was giving me my wish.
As soon as our eyes met, Rune straightened. I watched him swallow as my mama placed me in my chair. When she stepped away, Rune crouched down, not caring who else was there, and whispered, “Poppymin.” My breathing paused, when he added, “You look so beautiful.”
Reaching out my hand, I tugged on the bottom of his blond hair. “It’s combed back so I can see your handsome face. And you’re wearing a tux.”
A crooked smile pulled on his mouth. “I told you I would,” he replied.
Rune took my hand and, as gently as he could, pushed my corsage onto my wrist. I ran my hand over the blossom leaves. I couldn’t help but smile.
Looking up into Rune’s blue eyes, I asked, “Is this real?”
Leaning forward, he kissed me and whispered, “You’re going to prom.”
A tear escaped my eye, blurring my vision. I watched Rune’s face drop, but I laughed and told him, “They’re good tears, baby. I’m just so happy.”
Rune swallowed and I reached out and touched his face. “You’ve made me so impossibly happy.”
I hoped he heard the deeper meaning of those words. Because I didn’t just mean tonight. It meant he had always made me the happiest girl on the planet. He had to know.
He had to have felt the truth of that fact.
Rune lifted my hand and kissed it. “You’ve made me so damn happy too.”
And I knew he’d understood.
The sound of my daddy’s voice unlocked our stare. “Right, kids, you’d better get going.” I caught the gruffness in my daddy’s tone. I knew he wanted us gone because it was all too much for him to handle.
Rune stood and moved around to the back of my chair. “You ready, baby?”
“Yes,” I replied confidently.
All of the weakness I had felt vanished in an instant. Because Rune had somehow made this wish come true for me.
I wasn’t going to waste a single second.
Rune pushed me to my mama’s car. He lifted me from the wheelchair and placed me on the front seat. I was smiling so big. In fact, I never stopped smiling during the entire drive.
When we pulled up at the school, I heard the music from inside drifting out into the night. I closed my eyes, savoring every image: the parade of limos arriving one after the other, the students dressed so smartly, all entering the school gym.
With so much care, as always, Rune lifted me out of the car and onto my chair, then moved before me and kissed me. He kissed me like he meant it. Like he knew that these kisses were as limited as I knew they were.
It made every touch and taste that much more special. We had kissed almost one thousand times, yet the final few that we were taking, they were the most special. When you know that something is finite, it makes it that much more meaningful.
When he pulled back, I cupped his handsome face and said, “Kiss nine hundred and ninety-four. At my senior prom. With my Rune … my heart almost burst.”
Rune took a deep breath and pressed a final kiss on my cheek. He began to push me toward the gym. The teachers that were chaperoning saw us arrive. Their reactions to me warmed my heart. They smiled, they embraced me—they made me feel loved.