Page 56 of The Significance of Moving On

Our eyes meet. He doesn’t blink. I don’t blink. And then he’s moving, long strides cutting through the distance between us with purpose and confidence until he stands before me, our chests bumping with every frantic breath. This is it.

Casey lifts his hands to my cheeks. He doesn’t say hi. He doesn’t speak at all. Casey Davenport kisses me. My eyes close, my head falls back and my mouth opens to him. He tastes of promise and future and, and peppermint. He tastes of love. Absolutely without a doubt his lips show his true colors.

This beautiful man pulls back to whisper in my ear. “I never want to go back to not kissing you.”

My head falls against his chest, more precisely his heart, as I shake with relief. Casey circles his arms around me. There’s a safe, protected feeling to his hug and I finally feel home. I’m home.

“I was so scared,” he says. “You didn’t return any of my calls or texts. I thought—god, I thought.”

“I’m alright now.”

“But if something would’ve…” he drops his hug to scrub at his face. “We should get your bag.”

Getting my bag means moving from this spot when all I want to do is continue to lean against him for at least a week, if not way longer. “I’m good,” I say, snuggling closer.

He chuckles, making no effort to move either. “Me, too.” Then he kisses the crown of my head and that’s when those blurs begin to slow down, recognizable as people once again.

“Does this mean I have your answer?” I ask.

“What do you think?”

“I want it on the record, you know, for insurance purposes.”

Casey rolls his eyes, smirking and pulls me by the hand to get my bag. “You’re a pain in my ass, you know that, right?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, and yes. You have my answer…Therewill bekissing. That shirt looks good on you, by the way.” When we reach the baggage claim, Casey lifts my small suitcase from the conveyor belt, rolling it behind him, never letting go of my hand.

Chapter Twenty-Six

When we’re in his truck, instead of holding my hand, he tugs me to lean against his shoulder and Casey wraps his arm around my waist. “I thought you were going to say no,” I whisper.

“I thought I was, too.”

That makes me sit up straighter. “What made you say yes?”

He tugs me back down to his shoulder, bends his head to kiss my cheek and looks straight ahead again. “You.”

“Me? I thought I was the problem.”

“Jesse, D, they both reminded me pretty much on repeat how much better my life has been with you in it. And then when I didn’t know if you were okay.” He stops mid-thought and doesn’t continue.

“But before that, you couldn’t see me for yourself? What if this is just your fear talking?”

“It’s not.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I could see it, too. I was just willing to ignore it before.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Listen, I’m going to be honest. There are parts of my life that I’m just not ready to share with anyone. It was because of that. Please say this explanation, and I know how shitty it is, will suffice.”

His fingers dig into my waist as he squeezes it gently.

“Um…okay,” I answer softly. “What changed your mind?”

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