Page 213 of Between the Blue
“I can’t let you give up everything you have here for me.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” Ben insists. “I’m doing it for me. I need to close this chapter of my life. It’s time for me to move on. And if it’s not Paris, it’ll be elsewhere.”
“Where is elsewhere?”
His throat bobs. “Not Paris.”
I wet my lips. “That’s too far,” I mutter.
“I agree,” Ben nods.
A dry laugh bursts out of me, and I clamp my hand over my mouth to stop it.
Ben smiles, shaking his head. And when silence falls between us, he speaks up again.
“I’d really like for it to be Paris, Cherry. Because I’d really like to start this next chapter by your side. So, Addison Dixon, I guess the only thing to know is, will you have me?”
“Have you?” I question him.
He nods.
“All of you?” I ask, stepping closer to him.
“All of me,” he confirms, reaching up and holding my face in his hands. “Feelings and labels and birthday gifts and all the kissing under the mistletoe included.”
A smile pulls at my lips, and tears sting the corners of my eyes. But they’re not out of sadness this time. “You mean it?”
“With everything I have,” he says. And then he pulls my face to his, pressing his lips down on mine.
We kiss so long that I lose track of where I am. And I don’t mind at all.
Eventually, I pull back, resting my forehead against his. “You wanna date me, Ben?”
“So bad,” he mutters, kissing me again.
I hum against his lips. “You totally like me.”
“I love you,” he says.
“I love you too,” I tell him. “And, you know what?”
“What’s that?” Ben asks.
“I’m so glad I showed you my panties.”
epilogue
HIM, SIX MONTHS LATER
I love the cold.
But not nearly as much as I love her.
It’s okay though.
Because, for reasons I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, I get to have them both.
This life isn’t something I ever dreamed I could have.
