Page 100 of What Should Have Been Ours

I take her face in my hands, brushing away the tears with my thumb. “I want that reality, Gab. But no matter what happens, I want to start making the most of whatever time we have now.”

She lets out a soft, broken sob, pressing her forehead against mine. “Cam…”

“I don’t want to waste time pretending there’s not a countdown happening,” I murmur. “I want to live. With you. Experience everything I can with you. We lost twelve years being apart. I want to make up for every minute that should have been ours together.”

Her hands clutch my hoodie, gripping onto me. “You’re not leaving me,” she whispers again.

I press a kiss to her cheek, then her jaw, then her lips.

“I love you,” I murmur against her mouth. “I’ve never known love like yours, Gabrielle.”

She kisses me back desperately. “I love you too.”

I smile against her lips before pulling back slightly. “Now put the car in park.”

Her brows furrow. “What?”

“Put it…in park, Gabrielle.”

She does, then looks at me, a little confused.

Sliding my hands over to her, I unbuckle her seatbelt, gripping her and pulling her across the center console, onto my lap.

She lets out a soft gasp, straddling me in the passenger seat. “Cam—”

I brush her hair back, my fingers tracing along her jawline. I take my time looking at her, memorizing her, because I want to hold onto this forever. Onto her forever.

I want to take the memory of her wherever I end up.

“You’re everything to me, Gabrielle. You’re the reason my heart knows how to beat. I can’t tell you how much I love you with just words,” I whisper. “All I want to do right now is take you home and make up for all the months I’ve been stuck in that hospital.” I let my hands roam slowly over her body. “I want to get reacquainted with the woman that’s always been the real death of me.”

She lets out a breathy laugh, her hands sliding over my chest. “You need to save your energy, Dr. Hayes,” she smirks. “So, I’ll have to be the one taking care of you.”

My head falls back against the seat.

She’s my favorite feeling.

She’s what it feels like to watch the sunset kissing the ocean.

She’s what it feels like to escape reality.

She is the poem I write in the dark, with my hands instead of words, with my lips instead of thoughts.

She is my favorite temptation. My greatest undoing. The one I’ve waited to come back to me for all these years.

“Gabrielle…we better get going.”

She laughs, but it’s breathless, her own eyes darkening. “Yeah…let’s go,” she whispers and then kisses the spot right under my ear.

I grip her waist, shifting her back into her seat as quickly as possible before I lose all self-control.

Tonight is going to be one hell of a homecoming.

39

Gabrielle

It should be Cam who’s exhausted. He’s the one who’s been through hell—the chemo, the transfusions, the constant poking and prodding, the endless tests. His body has been worn down, his energy levels should be at an all-time low. So why am I the one struggling to keep up?