Page 155 of Dex

I’d blocked him out, not wanting to trust again, but I wasn’t completely surprised when I saw him.I wondered if he remembered how good we were together, just like I did in my many despondent moments.I wondered if he remembered how perfect we were for one another.

Turns out, he did.

We sit quietly, the breeze carrying the scent of gardenias and the sound of the city beyond the gates.It’s a scent I’ll cherish and take back with me when we return to New York in a few days’ time.

***

Everything feels different.

Lighter.

Brighter.

The heaviness of recent weeks has lifted.It’s like when rain has fallen and scrubbed everything clean again.

Dexter holds my hand in the car.He doesn’t let go.Not once.

When we get back to his penthouse, our home, I pause in the doorway of the bedroom.For so long, this space represented distance.Lines we never crossed.Feelings we never said aloud.

Now… it’s ours.

He shuts the door gently behind us.I turn to him, heart racing.

“You know what I realized?”he says, voice low.

“Tell me.”

“You didn’t just change my life.You changed me.”He steps closer.“You made me believe I could love someone.That I could be loved back.You didn’t see my name, or my money, or the mess I tried to hide.”He presses a hand over his heart.“You saw this.The part I buried.And somehow… you loved it anyway.”

Tears sting the corners of my eyes.“You made me believe in things again too, Dexter.I’m so used to people writing me off as just a pretty face, but you took the time to get to know who I am.You actuallyseeme.No one else ever dug deep enough.”

He pulls me into his arms.“I love you so much, sometimes it scares me.”

I lift my head up.“Scares you?”

“If something had happened to you.It was bad enough when you got mugged, and now, seeing you with Oscar Ramos, sitting across the table from him, looking sad.It was heartbreaking.”

“I was sad.I was so sad.”I press my face into his chest, breathing him in.He’s everything I need.Safety, steadfastness, and home.For the first time since this entire nightmare began, I believe we’ll be okay.“I want to trust you,” I whisper.

He brushes my cheek.“You don’t have to want anything.But if you choose to trust me… then I’ll spend every day proving you were right to.”

Our eyes lock as we hold hands.I’m still trying to process the storm that just tore through my life, and this man before me is a promise I never let myself believe in.

Dexter Knight.

My husband.Or ex-husband.

My heart.My life.My everything.I swallow the lump in my throat, overwhelmed.He cares.He really cares.More than that, this man loves me, and he’s not only told me, he’s shown me.

"You didn’t shave" I run my hand across his stubble.It feels alien on my fingers.He’s usually cleanshaven, his skin smooth as a baby’s.

"I haven’t slept much," he confesses, wiping a hand over his face, like he’s wiping away the stress and exhaustion of the past few days.

He looks rough, and exactly like he’s been sleep-deprived for days.

"Oh, Dexter," I murmur, putting my arms around his waist again and leaning into his hard chest.The beat of his heart against my ear is reassuring.

"I couldn’t bear the thought that I’d lost you.That I might have been too late."

---