Page 93 of Our Final Encore

“So…” She grabs my hand and intertwines her fingers with mine. “Maybe, we could make this work. I mean, if you still want to, that is.” A blush crawls up her neck as she nervously looks away again.

I can’t stop the smile that takes over my face, my whole body fills with a warmth that I can’t even put into words, and I do my best not to crush her as I wrap my arms around her body, pulling her against me. “It’s all I want, Opal. For the rest of my life, it’s all I want.”

FIFTY-SIX

Opal

“After reading every poem on your Instagram, I finally felt like I understood a tiny fraction of the pain I caused you. It felt like every word you wrote was directed at me, and it hurt like hell to read them, but I needed to.”

He’s not wrong. Many of those poems were written about him, most of them, if I’m being honest. And a lot of them contain the words that I couldn’t say to his face, or didn’t know how to.

“I realize now that I didn’t just break your heart, I broke your spirit too. The woman you are today isn’t the same one I walked away from five years ago, and that’s my fault. But I love who you are now just as much, more even, than who you were then. Even with all of the baggage, even with all of the pain. I want all of it, I know it won’t be easy, but that’s okay. I don’t want easy, I want us.”

Another tear slides down my cheek, but this one isn’t full of sadness or regret.

I squeeze his hand and pull him towards me, until his body is pressed against mine. “I do, too.”

“How does your doctor feel about you leaving the house?” He asks as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. I breathe in the familiar scent of his skin and relax my head into the crevice of his neck.

For the first time in so long, I feel at peace. Like I can simply let myself feel all of the feelings that are flooding my heart right now.

“I’m not really supposed to, unless it’s an emergency.”

He nods and stays quiet for a moment as his eyes dance over the screen. “I wanted to show you this in person, but…I got us an apartment. Do you want to see?”

My brows wrinkle together as I study his face, completely perplexed.“Sure…?” I reach out to take the phone in his hand.

I swipe through the photos, each one revealing a different room in what looks like a large, very new apartment. White walls, vaulted ceilings, a super modern kitchen that I could’ve only dreamt of before now. It’s nice. Likereallynice.

“How did you do this?”

He scratches the back of his neck. “I know I should’ve asked you first. But things seemed to be going well between us, at the time, and I was hoping that we could bring the baby home from the hospital together. That way they’d have their own bedroom and everything…”

I shake my head, unsure why he’s explaining himself. “No, I meant...how did you pay for it?”

His eyes meet mine and he folds his lips together. “I sold the rights to a couple of my songs.”

“What do you mean?”

“It turns out you can sometimes make more money writing songs than actually playing them. So I sold my lyrics to another artist.”

On the walls of the apartment are photos of us from our past, some from our senior prom, a couple of us together during ourawkward middle school stage. One room is full of baby stuff; a crib, a changing table, even a rocking chair. Maybe I should be annoyed that he didn’t ask before signing the lease on an apartment for us, but…I’m not. Instead, the armor around my heart just shatters a little bit more.

“How much did you sell them for?”

“Five hundred thousand.”

The phone nearly drops out of my hand as I scramble to make sense of what he just said. “What?!”

“I put most of it in a trust for the baby. That way he or she will be totally set by the time they’re eighteen. But I kept enough for us to comfortably live on for a while, too.”

My mouth is slack-jawed as I shake my head in disbelief.

He sighs. “I understand if you still want to stay here. I shouldn’t have made any assumptions. But I knew you’d want to stay here in Willow Grove, be close to your family. So I figured finding a place here would be a good idea, at least for now.”

Blinking, I will my brain to catch up and make sense of this entire situation. “And you’re okay with that? Staying in Willow Grove?” I ask.

He nods. “I want to be wherever you are. I don’t care where it is, as long as we’re there together I’ll be happy.” He reaches over to grab my thigh. “I mean that, Opal.”

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