Page 45 of Accidental Love

“Liam, you are here,” I whispered after a while. I pulled away slightly so I could look up at him. I brought my hands up to his face and touched his stubble, which was there because he’d been in a coma for almost a week and in the hospital for a few more days. The hairs pricked my fingers, and I had to admit it made him look hotter. I trailed my hands up higher tracing his entire face. He closed his eyes, sighing against me as I let my hands wander. My fingers couldn’t seem to stop as they continued re-tracing everything. When I forced them away, his blue eyes snapped open and stared down at me.

“Why did you leave? Why did you leave that note? What are you doing with Candy? Why?” he asked in a rush, his voice sounding hurt.

“I am so sorry, Liam. I…did what I thought you would want, what your mother wanted. I couldn’t stay, believing I was the cause of all of this. I thought it would be better for the best of us if I left your life for good. But by doing so, it killed me. I can’t leave you, Liam. I don’t know why I thought I could, but I can’t. You are everything to me; everything that I need and I can’t let you go. Not now, not ever. It took me this long to realize that and to see that I can for once have what I want, instead of what others want. And, Liam, I want you. No one else but you,” I said hurriedly. I had to let him know how I felt, had to let him know that now I wasn’t letting him go.

“I know I left you alone in the hospital and I shouldn’t have. I should have been right by your side, regardless of what your mother wanted. I am sorry I did that, and I am sorry that I thought I could just leave you with a note. I just…I just can’t stand the thought of losing you, Liam.” I cried, hot tears running down my face.

“Jenna,” Liam choked out, dropping his hand from my waist to bring it up to my face. He wiped away my tears as he stared down at me. His own blue eyes were becoming glossy. “I am not mad that you left me. You thought what you were doing was right, but it wasn’t. I can’t have you leave me, Jenna. When I found out that you were gone, it was like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. You…you can’t just leave, okay? I won’t let you leave. My mother was wrong saying that stuff to you, and I know she feels terrible about it. I haven’t fully forgiven her, and you shouldn’t either, but you can’t listen to whatever people say. You need to follow your heart, follow what you want.”

I looked up at him, my heart beating a million miles per hour.

“Jenna, I am so in love with you that being away from you for even a minute hurts; it physically hurts. Having to lay in that bed, not knowing if you were severely hurt or not, nearly killed me. Never again run off, okay? Even if you do, I will follow you to the ends of the earth to bring you back.”

That was all he said before he crushed his lips to mine.

I kissed him back with so much emotion that I was sure our lips were going to be bruised. I put all of my love, and even guilt for running away, into it. Our lips molded perfectly with one another’s. This was what I wanted. I was meant to be with Liam. Even though our way of getting together wasn’t traditional, I wouldn’t change it. I wouldn’t change my answer to his deal, nor would I change how things happened between us. We had carved our way to be where we were now. I might not truly believe in soul mates, but Liam was mine. His heart and soul were meant to mold with mine.

After a few minutes, we broke apart for some air. We both panted as we laid our foreheads together. I closed my eyes, breathing the scent of him in, taking in the feeling of his body against mine. My curves fit perfectly with his hard body. My body was the perfect fit to his. When I did finally open my eyes, I caught his blue ones already staring at me.

“Jenna Howard, don’t you dare leave me again,” he said, his voice firm.

“I won’t. I promise I will never leave you again, Liam. I am so hopelessly in love with you.”

“Good.” He kissed me again. I became even more breathless as his tongue wiggled itself into my mouth. His mouth was letting me know that I was his, and that no one else could have me. When we pulled apart, I grinned widely up at him. My lips were swollen and I knew I had a glow to my cheeks. Looking at him, I knew I made the right choice. Liam was who I was supposed to be with. Sure, in the future we would argue and not agree with one another, but I looked forward to that. I knew that even if we fought we would still love one another. We had already been through so much to let anything stupid get in the way.

The sound of someone’s throat clearing jerked me away from my thoughts and made me look away from Liam. Standing to one side of us were Devon and Grayson. They had ear-splitting grins plastered on their faces. Devon even wiggled his eyebrows at us, making me blush. Liam and I had put on quite a show, I bet. Good thing no one else was here in the diner, or that would have been really embarrassing.

“It is about damn time,” a new voice said. My head whipped in the direction of the door, and my gaze landed on Lennon, Blake, and Julie. All three strode in with grins just as wide as the rainbow boys had on. “God, you two really need to get a room,” Lennon continued. She tried to sound disgusted but failed. They all came to a stop beside the other two, smiling at us. I could have gone to hug them but I pressed tightly against Liam, and I didn’t want to leave the warmth of his touch. For not having seen them for a week I missed them a lot. I had made great friends in my time with Liam, and hadn’t realized until now that I considered them all my close friends. I could tell they missed me as well. I lifted my hand in a smile and waved to them.

“You are still wearing it,” Liam said softly. I looked back at him, confused. I followed his gaze to my ring.

“Of course. I couldn’t take it off, no matter what,” I admitted, looking at it as well.

“This is not how I wanted this to go at all. I wanted to ask you this when we got home the other night, but then the accident happened. Even though I can’t really get down on one knee, or have us be at some romantic place but…Jenna Howard, will you really marry me?” Liam asked, gazing at me. “I don’t want to wait another second without knowing that you will be all mine. I can’t have you running off on me.”

This was definitely not the place to do this, but I didn’t care. Here was the man of my dreams asking me to really marry him. Not for money or for him to be able to have his family’s business. He really wanted to marry me, out of all people. As cliché as it sounded, this was better than any other proposal I could hope for.

“Yes, Liam! Yes.”

His smile was brighter than the sun as he heard my answer. He swooped in to kiss me. It was a toe-curling kiss, and the only reason we broke apart was for the five munchkins watching us, saying how their eyes burned. Liam turned and glared at them before turning back to me.

“I promise that later, when we both are feeling better, I will do this the right way. But for now I know your answer.” His right arm wrapped around my waist again.

“Liam, the answer will always be yes,” I said softly, and then kissed his lips, regardless of the onlookers.

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