Page 118 of Our Darkest Summer
I handed him the postcard, my fingers gripping the edges for just a second longer before letting go. He took it carefully, his dark eyes flicking over the front before he turned it over and stilled.
Slowly, his thumb traced the words I had written. He didn’t speak. Neither did he move. He just stared. And with every passing second my heartbeat quickened.
His expression shifted. For a moment, he looked like a child who just realized for the first time that he was loved. That he mattered in all the ways possible.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“You wrote this to me?” His voice was soft with disbelief.
I nodded, biting my lip.Did he like it?
He exhaled a shaky breath, his eyes glistening, the same way they did in his childhood photos. Then he carefully, like he was scared it would break, set the postcard down on the nightstand. Without a word, he pulled me against his chest. A chuckle broke free from my throat.
He liked it.
His arms tightened, and his lips pressed into my hair. “Thank you,” he murmured. The warmth in my chest swelled, flooding through my body. After a moment, he pulled back just enough to look into my eyes. His gaze was soft, deep… endless.Like the ocean.
“I love you,” I whispered, because I did. Because I had for so long. Because the look on his face, the way he held onto me, made my heart feel too full to keep it in.
His fingers brushed over my cheek, his breath unsteady. “I love you too,” he murmured, the words slipping from his lips so naturally, like they had always been there.
Then he leaned in, pressing a lingering kiss to my temple.
“I have something for you, too,” he said, his hold tightening around me, like he wasn’t ready to let go. He leaned over, grabbing something from the nightstand. “It’s not as special as yours, but...” He placed more than a dozen crossword puzzle books in my lap. I blinked, my jaw dropping.
“Are you kidding?” My brain short-circuited. “This must have cost—how did you even get—” My voice died as I flipped through them.
Hundreds of puzzles. All waiting for me.
This must have been what heaven felt like.
I opened the one on the top, and my heart stumbled.
My fingers traced the loops of his handwriting before I met his gaze. My throat tightened.How did I get so lucky?
A lazy smile curled on his lips. “You like it?”
I let out a laugh and launched myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him close enough to feel his heartbeat against mine. He caught me without hesitation, and we melted into each other like two halves of a once-broken stone. For long minutes, we didn’t move. I was lost in the warmth of him, inhaling his steady scent.
The world felt still. And in that quiet, I realized I hadn’t just found my home in Thomas Rhodes.
I’d found someone who showed me the meaning of—To be loved is to be known.
???
An hour later, I was sitting on Josh’s deck boat with a mojito in one hand and one of my new crossword books in the other, while Braxton blasted music from the shore.
The warm summer breeze carried the scent of grilled food across the lake, mixing with the tang of sunscreen and water. The faint crackle of sizzling meat and vegetables reached us, blending with the rhythmic creak of the dock, the distant hum of laughter, and the occasional splash of someone diving into the water.
On the front steps of the house, Aaliyah and Cora sat close, deep in conversation. They had been doing that a lot in the last couple of days, their voices rising and falling over the hum of the grill.
It wasn’t smooth between us all just yet, but that was okay. Some things took time.
“Kins!” Connor’s voice sliced through the peace, yanking me out of my thoughts. I barely had time to hide my crossword behind my back before he climbed onto the boat, shaking out his wet hair. “Swim with me, pretty please.”
I slid my sunglasses down my nose, eyeing him suspiciously as I bit onto the end of my pen. “No,” I said, shifting in my seat. “I’m busy, as you can see.” I lifted the mojito, taking a slow sip.
Connor stepped closer, and I sank deeper into my seat.
