Page 339 of Saving Forever with the Hockey Captain

She stops walking. "No?"

I shake my head. "He's more."

For a moment she simply watches me. Then a slow smile spreads across her face.

"I was wondering when you'd finally admit it."

I laugh softly. "I don't think I really understood it myself."

"You do now?"

"I used to think love was butterflies."

Keisha waits.

"I thought it was excitement...or grand gestures...or never wanting to be apart."

"And now?"

I don't answer immediately, because the truth isn't dramatic. It's quieter than that.

"It's peace."

The words settle gently between us.

"Peace?"

I nod. "It's knowing someone is in your corner before you even ask."

I smile to myself. "It's walking into a room and never wondering whether you're enough."

"It's sitting in comfortable silence."

"It's knowing that no matter how hard the day gets..."

I glance toward Frostholm in the distance.

"...there's one person I can't wait to tell about it."

Keisha doesn't say anything for a long moment. Then she slips her arm through mine again. "I've never heard you sound like this before."

"Like what?"

"Like you are home."

The single word catches me completely off guard.

Home.

I look around at the lake, the hills, and the little shops lining Main Street.

Then I smile. “I am.”

**

By the time Keisha leaves the next morning, the inn parking lot feels quieter than it did yesterday.

She hugs me one last time before climbing into her rental car.