“That was…” She sniffled, wiping away the dampness with her fingers. “Oh wow. That was beautiful, Luca. I think that’s my new favorite song.”
I swallowed the lump that threatened to form in my throat.
“You’re my favorite song,” I whispered.
She blinked, sending fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. “Wh-what are you saying?”
I set my guitar aside and took her hands in mine. “I’m saying I wrote that for you.”
She released a soft exhale.
“I wrote itaboutyou,” I added.
“You did?”
I nodded. “McKenzie, you’ve changed my life. You made me believe in something I didn’t think was possible for me. Something I didn’t know could exist for me.”
She smiled through her tears and climbed onto my lap, taking my face in her hands. “You feel like coming home too.”
I gazed into her eyes, and I could see my whole damn future inside them. This woman had single-handedly altered the course of my life. She’d given me something worth sticking around for.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re beautiful.” I answered, my voice low and husky. “And…”
“And what?”
My heart felt like it might hammer a hole right through my chest.
“McKenzie, I love you,” I confessed.
She brought her hands to her mouth for a moment, then cupped my face.
“I love you too.” Her words were thick with emotion. “I love you so fucking much.”
“But I’ve got to be honest, it scares the shit out of me. I’ve never done this before. I’ve never had something like this. I don’t want to fuck it up. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She pressed a gentle kiss to my jaw. “You won’t.”
I pulled back to look into her eyes. “But what if I do?”
“Then we work through it,” she said softly. “Look, we’re gonna do things that hurt or piss each other off if we stick this out long enough. But we don’t bail when things get hard. We stay.”
“We stay,” I echoed, taking a strand of her hair between my fingers. “I want to piss you off for years to come. I’m all in on this thing with you.”
“This thing, huh?” she asked, lifting her brows. “What is thisthingyou speak of?”
“You know…You and me.”
She looked at me as though I’d just spoken pig latin. “I think there’s actually a word for that.”
The corners of my mouth curved upward. “Do you need me to say it?”
She held up her hands in mock surrender. “I just want to know if you can.”
“I can say it,” I insisted.
“Go ahead, then.”
