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But I haven’t been truly happy… There has always been a hole. An absence.
True happiness is a puzzle. It’s a jigsaw puzzle we’re all carefully putting together, searching for those pieces that link and connect, that allow us to move on to the next part of the puzzle. Some puzzles remain incomplete, and I think that’s because many people don’t know what makes them truly happy. Or…they’re unwilling to take the time to find those other missing pieces first. They just want to squeeze the last piece into a space it won’t fit.
Those other pieces are integral, though.
They are the stepping stones for the finished puzzle.
And as I lie here beside the man I love, watching his organic, soul-deep smile put light back into his eyes, I’m thankful we both took the time to find those pieces.
I reach out and graze the pads of my fingertips down his stubbled jaw, sighing with gratitude. “You’re smiling.”
“I am,” he confirms.
“You look truly happy.”
“I am.”
Licking my lips, I wonder, “Are Mom and Dad happy, too? About us?”
A little wrinkle mars his brow as his eyes glitter gold and green. “I think they’re done being unhappy.” His knuckles graze along my cheekbone as he bites his lower lip with consideration. “I think it’s going to be a long, sometimes painful road. I don’t think it will be easy or quick. But…I think they’re ready to move forward. To start healing. I think your dad is ready to make up silly rhymes again and wear his ridiculous slippers. And maybe he’s not there yet, but he gave me his blessing to move to New York, knowing what that would mean, and…” His eyes slant, gaze skimming over my face. “I think he’ll get there…and we’re all going to feel pretty damn remarkable one day. And when that day comes, every unremarkable minute will have been worth it.”
I sniffle through a wave of tears, nodding my head. “True happiness is worth every sad, unremarkable minute,” I tell him, my smile lingering. “It’s been worth every night sleeping alone, every tear spilled without you here to wipe it away, every rainbow I’ve watched paint the sky only for it to fade like it was never even there, all while I begged for it to come back. While I ached for one last glimpse.” Pressing a tender kiss to his mouth, I tell him, “It’s been worth the wait just to see you smile like that.”
He smooths back my hair with both hands, pressing his forehead to mine. “I would’ve waited forever, Junebug…but I’m really glad we didn’t have to wait that long.”
“You mean it?” I whisper.
“Of course I mean it.”
I kiss him again—hard, messy, and painfully beautiful.
Just like us.
Never underestimate a man willing to wait forever for the woman he loves, for there is nothing he’s not capable of.
Noble to some.
A fool to many.
But to that woman?
He
is
everything.
39
GOOD NEWS FIRST
BRANT, AGE 28
I really, really missed her mouth.
“Jesus, June…” My back is pressed against the bedroom wall as my hands fist her mane of silky hair. I watch as her head bobs up and down on my cock, her moans making it sound like she’s enjoying this even more than I am.
Literally impossible.
