Page 52 of Awakening

“I’ll never give up on you. I told you, I’ll do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.”

“Coming here today has made me realize just how much this must be affecting you too, and I really want to try, Ethan. I do. More than I have so far.”

I sit down next to her and take her free hand in mine. “I love hearing that, Liv.” She looks nervous as she bites her lip. “What’s going through that beautiful mind of yours?”

“I think,” she hesitates for a moment, but then says, “I think I’d like to come home. If you’ll still have me?”

I think my heart may very well leap from my chest. I cup her face in my hands, brushing her cheeks with my thumbs. “Are you kidding me? That’s all I’ve wanted since I lost you that day…to find you and bring you home.” I lean in and kiss her, my tongue brushing past her lips. She accepts me, wrapping her hands behind my neck, while she still holds her engagement ring. “I love you,” I say as we part.

She holds the ring up again, studying it, clearly thinking. “Ethan?”

“What is it, baby?”

“I don’t know if I have the right to ask this,” she says.

“You can ask me anything. What is it?”

Her beautiful green eyes look up from her ring and meet mine. “May I wear my engagement ring?”

The shock of her question shoots me in the center of my chest. Is this really happening? Is my mate really coming home to me again, as my fiancée? I take the ring from her grasp and hold her hand in mine. “I need to ask you to understand something before you put this ring back on your finger,” I say.

She nods. “Okay.”

“Olivia, if you put this ring back on, you’ll be mine. I won’t share you with Anthony Moretti, or any other man, for that matter. I want our focus to be each other, and coming back together to build our life again. Once you’re wearing this ring, your home is here. With me. Can you do that? Can you come home and promise me you won’t give up on us?”

She stares at the ring in my hand, takes a deep breath, and sighs.

“Olivia, if you aren’t ready to make that commitment yet, I completely understand.”

“I am,” she says, looking into my eyes and nodding. “I may not remember how we once felt about each other, but I know how you make me feel now,” she says with a small smile. “If we had something as great as it seems it was, I don’t want to lose that. I’m ready.”

I rest my forehead to hers. “I love you so fucking much, Olivia. You have no idea.” I drop to my knee in front of her in the kitchen as she smiles, and take her left hand in mine. “Olivia Evelyn Newman, would you do me the great honor of becoming my fiancée once again?”

She nods with a wide smile. “I will.”

I slide the ring on her finger and release a breath of relief I think I’ve been holding since the moment she went missing. We’re finally on our way back to each other. Looking at my phone, I see that it’s still early.

“Come on.” I take her hand, pulling her to me and kissing her soft lips. “We’re going out for a drink to celebrate.”

Olivia

“I texted Chloe to tell her I’m staying,” I say as we walk into the little cocktail bar called Tonic.

“Was she excited?” Ethan asks.

“What do you think?” I show Ethan her text reply with all the happy emojis you could imagine, and he laughs. “This looks like a fun place,” I say as we walk up to the bar.

“You always tell me that this place makes the best apple martini, but not the gross green kind,” he says with a laugh.

I raise my eyebrows with a smile. “Oh, interesting. Did I come here a lot?”

“You, Chloe, and Vanessa like coming here for drinks now and then. Does anything look familiar?”

My heart sinks when I realize he’s brought me here hoping that something will trigger my memory. “No, I’m sorry. I would love to try one of these amazing apple martinis, though,” I say as a man behind the bar approaches us.

“Did I hear someone say amazing apple martini?” he asks with a big smile.

“Hey, Nate,” Ethan says, shaking hands with the man. “Olivia, this is our friend Nate. He owns this establishment.”

---