Page 90 of Forever Only Once

“I like it shorter. I like it long, too. I just like you.”

“I had to cut it…after.”

“I know. Arden mentioned it.”

“I like that she’s the go-between. But I’d rather we not need one.”

“I get you. And I love you, too, Hazel.” My heart stopped. “I love you so fucking much. I was coming here to make sure that you knew that. I gave you space because you asked for it, but I was coming to see if you still needed that. I don’t want to fucking go. And I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry that everything happened, but we went through that together, and we can go through this together, too. I’m just so fucking sorry that any of it happened at all.”

Tears were freely streaming down my cheeks now, and I leaned forward, kissing his bearded chin. He looked down and then kissed me softly, his lips parted just a bit.

I swiped my tongue over his and moaned. I’d missed him.

“I’m so fucking happy I sat down at that table.”

I looked at him, crying even more. “And I love that you were my accidental date, even if I know that, in the end, there was nothing accidental about it.”

Then his lips were on mine, and I was smiling, breathing him in.

I knew we had more to go through, things to talk about, and worries to process. And we would.

But there would be no more walking away from each other. Because we could do this, as long as we did it together.

I had been wrong in thinking I could go it alone. Wrong in thinking I needed to.

He had beaten me to the punch, but I would grovel until the end of my days so he knew what I felt.

As he held me, and as I cried in his arms, I knew I never needed to be alone again.

I had found my forever, one I hadn’t even known I needed.

They say that you find forever only once, and while I had thought I’d found it before, I knew now that I was wrong.

I had found my forever in Cross, and I was never giving it away. Never returning it.

He was my forever.

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