Page 58 of Slow Burn
“I am. I was so stupid. I panicked.” Brynn shakes her head, touching my face so my eyes meet hers.
“You were right. I should have trusted you enough to come clean. I risked us, I risked our daughter.” It's the first time she's called Amelia hers and it soothes another torn part of me.
“Your daughter. My daughter is your daughter.” Then I'm kissing her again, tasting how much she loves me, how right it's going to be.
“My daughter. I love her, Levi. Maybe more than I love you,” She laughs softly between tears, “But, God I love you.” I kiss her again and then I hold them both for a moment.
I want to stay, and she wants me to, but I don't. I kiss her goodnight, tell her I love her, and promise to see her the next day. And I keep that promise. And the one I made to Amelia.
I'm getting her mama back and I'm keeping her.
I date the fuck out of Brynn.
We go to the movies and dinners. We hold hands and walk through Auburn park. We make out like teenagers while watching her favorite movies—crude comedies are her jam and I dig that for some reason.
And, we talk. And, we argue.
It gets loud and heated a few times. And I fucking love it. Because her walls are down, wreckage at her feet and she still loves me. And I still love the fuck out of her.
“I love you.” I holler one afternoon about two weeks after she's home.
We had been on a lunch date between some meetings for her—she's looking to do some freelance design work—and we'd argued about me not seeing her enough that week. Really, I'd seen her nearly every day but I hated sharing her.
But, she knew that so she didn't fight back. Not when it didn't matter; but my girl fought when it did and that's what made me shout that I loved her in the middle of Sheffield avenue.
“Do you? Good.” Brynn erupts into giggles and I laugh, lifting her onto the hood of our explorer.
“Yes, I do, honey. Give me something.” And she does. She wraps herself around me right there on the street and gives me everything.
We're tearing down the walls of the fucked-up castle we tried to build. And we're building it better this time. With bricks made out of the two of us. What I love about her, what she loves about me.
This castle will be impossible to tear down.
