“My ankle’s getting better every day,” I tell him, “and I elevated it for hours this morning, if you remember.”
“Was that really only this morning?” he asks. “There’s probably a lesson in that.”
“And what would that be? That you have no sense of time?” I say, swaying in the dim lights.
“No, sassy pants. Being apart for even a few hours is too long.”
“That’s a better lesson.” I rest my face on his chest. I have a feeling this is going to be my face’s new favorite place.
When the song finishes, Oliver bends down for a quick kiss that doesn’t stay quick. “Want to get out of here?” he asks in a low voice.
“We’ve only been here for twenty minutes,” I say with a laugh.
“Exactly. That’s practically an eternity.”
I hold his eye. “Are you sure? You came home for this.”
“I came home to support my brother, which I’ve done, but I also came home because I had nowhere better to be. I do now.”
“Yeah? Where’s that?”
“Wherever you are. And no one else, because I havegotto kiss you again.”
I raise my brows. “In that case, I’m all yours, Ollie Pop.”
He groans. “Please don’t make that a thing.”
“Oh, it’s a thing.”
“Elf.”
“Ollie Pop,” I repeat.
“Shouldn’t that be our … power name, or whatever?”
I laugh. “Touché.”
He chuckles and grabs my hand, and together we slip out of the reception and into the cold night.
Snow is falling again, soft and quiet, turning the parking lot into something almost magical. Oliver pulls me close.
“You remember Pat and Terry? From Kansas?” he asks.
“Yeah, what about them?”
“Terry said something I can’t stop thinking about. He said it’s not about the destination, and it’s not even about the journey. It’s about choosing to take the journeytogether. Every single day.”
I think about the older couple, how Pat made Terry laugh, how they teased and flirted. How he was still a grump and she was still smiling, and how he adored her with every glance. “Every single day, huh?”
“Yeah,” he says, brushing snow from my hair when we stop at my truck. “I want that. The boring days and the hard days, online and in real life. I want all of it with you.”
My throat tightens. “Even when I’m hurting?”
“Especially then.”
“Even when you’re annoyed with me?”
“I’m never annoyed with you.”
