Page 137 of Fun Together
“You asked me to admit that you didn’t make me happy. But you make me happier than I’ve ever been, and I’ve decided that I need to be brave enough to not only accept that but reciprocate it.” I take a deep breath. “So. . . my final truth is that I love you.”
I set my glass down on his side table. “I love you, because there is no one like you. Who makes me laugh like you. Who sees me, and knows me, like you. And I see you, too. I see you show up for your family and care for your friends. I see you step into everyone room like a beam of sunshine. I want all of your chatter, all of your warmth.” I wrap my arms around his neck. “I want your bad days, too. To take care of you and support you. I want to try all of it, with you.”
Then he kisses me, hard, before holding my face in his hands. “I love you, Faye.”
The kiss we share is so forceful we both lose balance, and he manages to catch my body as we roll off the couch. We laugh as we kiss and it’s perfect.
He lifts his head up, looking down at me with those sweet, teasing eyes I will never get enough of. “I think we might miss that dinner reservation.”
A piece of hair falls over his brow and I brush it back before pulling his mouth back to mine. I murmur against his lips, “Fine by me.”
We do what we’ve done countless times before but tonight is different. His hands on me are possessive, and my lips on his are finally home. We move together with no more doubts clouding the air between us.
I bury my face in the tender heat of his neck and whisper, “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you more,” he says before pressing his lips to my hair.
I’m so glad I won’t have to miss him anymore.
47
Faye
Two Months Later
Something is clawingat my toe. When I try to kick it off it only latches on harder.Am I having a nightmare?
I peek my eyes open and soft light pours into my bedroom through the sheer curtains. What possessed me to have sheer curtains in my bedroom, I have no idea. The clawing has turned to climbing and the little creature weasels its way up my leg, getting caught on the comforter along the way.
I’m not dreaming. It’s just the kitten I got yesterday. She’s a demon spawned directly from hell, but she’smydemon spawned directly from hell.
“Come here, you little devil.” I unlatch her from my legs and cuddle her up by my face, just like I wanted to do with Possum when I was little. Her little claws graze my cheek, but I don’t care. “We’ve got to get you on a different schedule. I can’t keep waking up with the sun.”
I hear rustling in the kitchen, which means Eli is already up making some kind of chalky protein concoction for breakfast.
“I swear you two are conspiring to make me a morning person. Did he put you up to this?”
She answers by pouncing, and then chewing, on my hair.
Eli peeks his head in the room, and I do a double take because he’s standing there wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with pink hearts all over them and a giant straw hat. He bought the boxers last week because he liked that they matched my underwear. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”he asks.
“No, this gremlin did.” I point to his head. “What’s with the hat?”
He comes in and kisses the cat on the head and then gives me a loud smacking kiss on the forehead. “I love my two little gremlins.”He tightens the strap hanging below his chin before giving the brim a proud tug. “It’s my gardening hat.”
Eli and my grandpa have become best friends, and that’s not even an exaggeration. They text each other every day, and I didn’t even know my grandpa even knew how to text. Their latest project is cleaning up grandpa’s garden beds. We’re heading over there this afternoon to work on it.
“You’re taking this gardening thing way too seriously.”
“Tell that to the fall harvest we’ve got waiting for us.”
“We? This has nothing to with me.”
He leaves and comes back with another hat, which he deposits on my head. “Rumor has it that you haven’t completed the hobby portion of your fun list.”
“Dani and I took that pottery class last week, though.”
“Doesn’t count. She told me you complained the whole time about how the wet clay felt on your hands.”
