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He didn’t smile, but his eyes were warm and amused.
I loved them like that. My eyes just looked like I’d been screwed within an inch of my life all night. The sleep was fleeting because we talked for hours between kissing and touching and discovering.
He told me about going to his father’s grave, and I held our hands clutched to my chest and cried silent tears while he confessed all those unnamed fears that held him back. I couldn’t be mad at any of it because he and I both knew that I’d been aware of my feelings far longer than he was.
Denying his, keeping them locked away, was no surprise to me, but his ability to talk about it now was even more than I expected. We talked about Sage, and how we wanted to tell her as soon as she got home.
This wasn’t a normal dating scenario, and we wanted to respect whatever emotions she felt about it, even if that meant only sneaky sleepovers after she went to bed.
As I wandered the room, I noticed a couple of framed photos on the edge of the dresser. One of his parents on their wedding day, surrounded by the six kids. Poppy, of course, wouldn’t join the family for a while after that. I picked it up and studied Ian’s serious little face.
“I remember this day,” I said. “I was so sad I couldn’t come. Even then, I felt like anywhere you got to go, I should be there too.”
“I asked my dad if you could be there.”
My head lifted. “Really?”
He nodded. “He said they were keeping the ceremony just for family. I was so pissed. I told him I’d trade Erik for you, which he didn’t appreciate.”
I laughed, setting the frame back down and picking up the next one. My eyes pricked. “Oh my gosh, look at us.”
We were so tan, so young. Ian sat with his hands on the handlebars of an old four-wheeler. I sat behind him, my arms wrapped around his middle and my chin on his shoulder. He had a soft smile on his face, and I was grinning widely.
“Do you remember what my mom said when she took that picture?” he asked.
Slowly, I nodded. “We were sixteen. She snapped it and said, You two. Someday you’ll realize how special it is, what you have.”
Ian was quiet, studying me while I stared at that version of our younger selves, a perfectly preserved memory that he’d been thoughtful enough to keep. Just as I was going to set it down, I noticed a small box, the kind you’d get at a jewelry store to hold the velvet ring box. It was black leather, with a thin band of gold foil embossing along the lid.
“What’s this?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, and when I glanced at him over my shoulder, he was watching me intently. “Open it,” he urged.
I set the frame down and carefully picked up the box. It was light, but when I tipped it, I heard something inside. Carefully, I shook it close to my ear, but I couldn’t tell what I was hearing.
With one hand holding the bottom, I wiggled the top lid off, holding my breath just before it came off.
My heart burst wide open when it did.
“Ian.” I looked over at him in shock. “Are these…? They’re not the same ones, are they?”
It was the look in his eye, so steady and sure and full of love, that gave me my answer.
On a disbelieving laugh, I picked up a sparkly pink paper clip, long ago bent into an oblong shape, and the color muted with age. I was too busy staring at the jumbled pile inside the box that I didn’t hear him leave the bed until his hands coasted around my hips and he anchored his arms around my waist. He nuzzled his nose into my hair and inhaled deeply.
My eyes fluttered closed, and I held the small box to my chest. “You kept them all these years?”
Gently, he kissed the side of my head, tightening his arms where he held me. “Couldn’t ever bring myself to get rid of them. Every time I moved or had to pack up my stuff, I came up with some reason they should stay.”
I turned in his arms, smiling up into his face when his hands smoothed down the shirt I wore until they rested firmly on my backside. The way he looked at me, I’d never felt so cherished, so perfectly understood.
Ian ducked down to give me a lingering kiss, a light brush of his tongue over mine.
“And it took you this long to admit you loved me, huh?”
His eyes, intense and deep, searched mine. “What can I say? I like to keep everyone on their toes.”
When I laughed, he kissed me again.
