Page 161 of Brighter Together

Her eyes fill.

I touch her cheek.

“And it doesn’t mean you have to earn me staying.”

A tear slips free.

Ella wipes it away impatiently.

“I’m trying very hard not to cry in your bath.”

“It can take it.”

I smile.

She leans forward and kisses me.

Softly at first.

Then again.

Her hand slides around the back of my neck.

When she pulls away, her forehead rests against mine.

“I love you too.”

Everything in me stills.

She hasn’t said it before.

Not yesterday.

Not when I said it to her.

I knew she was overwhelmed, so I didn’t ask for it back.

Hearing it now, here, with her tucked against me in a bath full of bubbles after one of the worst twenty-four hours of her life, hits me harder than I expect.

“You do?”

Her eyebrows lift.

“Don’t ruin it.”

A laugh escapes me.

“Sorry.”

“I love you, Tommy.”

This time I don’t say anything.

I kiss her.

Ella smiles against my mouth.

Then her hand slides down my chest beneath the water.