This was really happening. Dex was moving to Blue Point Bay. We were building a life together.
It was terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure.
My phone buzzed. Dex.
Dex:You awake?
Leigh:Yeah. Can’t sleep.
Dex:Me neither
Leigh:Come get me?
Dex:Be there in 5
I went inside, grabbed my shoes, left a note for Mom in case she woke up and panicked.Couldn’t sleep. Out with Dex. Be back soon.
True to his word, his truck pulled up five minutes later. I climbed in, and he didn’t ask where we were going. He just drove.
We ended up at the lookout. Our lookout. It almost felt like the place where this had all started which was a much better than the bar it had actually started at.
We got out and walked to the edge. The moon was nearly full, highlighting the town below, turning everything silver and magical.
We stood there in silence for a moment, just breathing in the night air.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked finally. “Really sure? Because if you have any doubts, any at all, now’s the time to say so.”
He turned to face me. “I’m sure. Are you?”
“I’m terrified.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I looked up at him, at this man who’d somehow become everything to me in the space of a summer. “I’m sure. I want this. I want you. I want us.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
“But what if…”
He kissed me, cutting off my what-ifs. When he pulled back, he was smiling.
“We can what-if ourselves to death, Leigh. What if it doesn’t work? What if we make a mistake? What if we regret it?” He took my hands. “Or we can choose to believe in us. To trust that we’ll figure it out. To have faith that love is worth the risk.”
“Since when are you the optimistic one?”
“Since I fell in love with you.”
My breath caught. We’d said it before, but somehow, here, now, in the moonlight at the place where it all began, it felt more real. More permanent.
“I love you too,” I whispered. “So much it scares me.”
“Good. Being scared means it matters.”
We stood there, holding each other as the night slowly started to give way to dawn. Neither of us spoke. We didn’t need to. Everything that needed to be said had been said.
Finally, as the sky started to lighten at the edges, Dex sighed.
“We should go. Big day today.”
