Page 142 of The Space Between
We spend the night in bed again, but this time it doesn’t feel like the start of anything or the end of something else. It justis.
Safe. True. Ours.
Gruene
She’s asleep beside me,her breath soft and steady, and I don’t move.
Not yet.
This is the last time I’ll wake up with her without knowing what the hell happens next. This is the last time I’ll wonder if I’m enough for her… if what I have to give—this scarred, broken, wreck of a man—is anything close to what she deserves.
Today… I’m going to find out.
The early September light filters through the sheer curtains, golden and warm, casting ribbons of sun across her bare back. She’s curled against me, one hand splayed over my chest like it belongs there, likeshebelongs there, and the truth is… shedoes.
I knew it the moment I felt her heart break in my hands. The moment I gave her mine in return. The moment she said she loved me, and I didn’t run. I didn’t freeze. I didn’t shove her away. I held her.
The truth is that I’ve been hers since the second she stepped out of that fucking car, vulnerable, brave, pissed off, and absolutely fucking beautiful.
I just didn’t know it yet.
She stirs against me, her legs stretching, her toes brushing my shin under the sheet. A soft hum escapes her lips before her eyes flutter open, amber and sleepy, too damn honest, and full of love for me.
“Morning,” she whispers.
I can’t stop myself. I cup her cheek and kiss her. Slow. Deep, with the kind of heat that lives in my bones only for her.
When I pull back, I press my forehead to hers. “I’m taking you somewhere.”
Her brows knit together. “What? Where?”
“You’ll see.” I reply, staring down at her.
Her eyes narrow. “Gruene… what…”
“It’s good,” I say, brushing my thumb over her lips. “I promise.”
She watches me a long beat, like she’s trying to read what’s coming, but she finally nods.
That’s all I need.
We don’t talk much as we get ready. There’s an energy between us, a hum of something charged and real. She pulls on a soft, short black dress and ties my flannel around her waist. Her hair is twisted up in a messy knot.
I can’t stop looking at her… not just because she’s beautiful. But because she’s the ending I never thought I’d get.
And the only beginning that makes sense now.
We head out, my truck tires crunching over gravel as I drive past the tubing shop and out onto the winding roads that once ruined me… the roads that took everything… but they won’t take her.
They won’t takethis.
Her eyes are on me as we drive. She reaches across the seat and slips her hand into mine. I rest both on my thigh. She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t have to. She knows this road.
I pull off after about twenty minutes, onto a hidden trail most people don’t even know exists. It leads down into a patch of wild riverbank I haven’t come to since the accident.
Not once… not until yesterday, when I cleared it, cleaned it, and made ittheirs…and now…mine.
Ours.
