Page 28 of Fortuity

ChapterEleven

Faith

“February seventh,”I whispered. “That’s when I got my new kidney. It was the best day ofmylife.”

“The crash happened on January tenth, but I didn’t wake up until the day after you had your transplant.” His thumb swept across my cheek, and I shivered. “It was the worst moment of my life because that’s when my parents told me Declan had died. I’d missed his funeral and was stuck in a hospital bed, unable to believe he was really gone. Not until I was discharged, and they took me to his grave. That’s when it hit me. I’d spent my entire life, even before I was born, with Declan by my side...but he was gone, and I had to figure out how to move on bymyself.”

I tilted my head to the side and rubbed my cheek against his palm. “I’m sosorry.”

“Thanks.” Dillon offered me a sad smile. “It’s kind of crazy to think we were both in the hospital at the same time, even though I was in a coma for most of my timethere.”

I did a quick calculation in my head. “I left six days after youwokeup.”

“I was at SoutheastMemorial.You?”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Same hospital. Same time frame. “It’s such a smallworld.”

“Full of coincidences that led you here.” His head dipped lower. “Tome.”

“When you put it like that, it kinda seems like we were meanttomeet.”

He brushed his lips against mine. The gesture was gentle, our mouths barely touching. But it was still a kiss. And our first. I had no doubt it was a memory I’d neverforget.

“More proof of that bond pulling us together,” he murmured againstmylips.

The way we fit didn’t make any sense. It was too much. It was way too soon. But it felt real. And good. So I rose up on my toes and pressed my mouth against his to claim a second kiss. A longer and deeper one than thefirst.

It lasted until his mom called out and we jumped apart from each other. “Dillon! You’d better get your dad out of the kitchen, or we’re never goingtoeat!”

“She’s not kidding,” he chuckled. “I better get in there. You up for throwing the football a little bit with my dadandme?”

It wasn’t at the top of my list of things to do since I was the furthest thing from athletic, but I wasn’t going to say no to the offer. Not when it meant I got to spend time with Dillon, doing something that made him happy. “Sure. Sounds goodtome.”

“C’mon.” He dropped another quick kiss on my lips before tugging on my hand to lead me into the kitchen. We stopped on the way to grab a football out of a closet off the hallway leading to the back of thehouse.

“Oh! You don’t have to head out there with the boys, Faith. You’re welcome to stay in here and help me instead,” Elaineoffered.

“You trying to steal mygirl,Mom?”

My cheeks filled with heat at Dillon calling me his girl. It only deepened when Elaine and Lloyd’s gazes dropped down to our hands, where our fingers were laced together. A huge grin split Elaine’s face, and Lloyd chuckled as he kissed hercheek.

“Maybe you should’ve let me be your helper, and then we wouldn’t have interruptedthekids.”

“Except then we wouldn’t have any dinner to eat because you would have found a way to ruin it all,” sheteased.

“We could’ve had Chinese again.” He jumped out of the way when she picked up a towel from the counter and snapped it at him. “Okay. Okay. We’regoing.”

Dillon opened the sliding glass door that led to the other side of the stone patio we’d been on earlier. As we walked outside, I heard Elaine mutter something along the lines of Chinese food being a worthy sacrifice. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but Dillon and Lloyd seemed to understand because they both burst into fits of laughter that lasted until we’d made it all the way down to the grass. Lloyd headed to the left, and Dillon and I went to theright.

“What’d I miss?” I asked Dillon when we were about fifty feet away fromhisdad.

“Thanksgiving dinner is my mom’s and my absolute favorite meal. We love all of it. The turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, cranberries, rolls, and pumpkin pie.” He flashed me an approving grin. “We both also love anything pumpkin flavored, so the cookies you made were the perfect thing tobring.”

“You haven’t even tried them yet,” I reminded him. “They could beawful.”

“They’re pumpkin flavored, and you made them for me.” He paused to throw the ball to his dad in a perfect spiral. “So I’m going tolovethem.”

“I actually made them for your mom since she’s the one who invited me.” His dad threw the ball our way, and Dillon caught it and tossed it back before reacting to my joke. Then he wrapped his arms around my torso and lifted me off my feet, twirling me around until I got dizzy. “Dillon!”

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