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He turns to face me, taking hold of my shoulders and pinning me with that intense stare of his.
“Will you come with me?” He asks and then cringes as if he’s bracing for a blow.
I don’t even need to think about it. This is everything I wanted and didn’t dare hope for. I lost my job and I can paint anywhere, so….
“I know it’s sudden. I don’t want to rush you, but it’s killing me to think about leaving you right now, even if it’s just for two weeks,” he says, his eyes worried and searching.
“Of course I’ll come.”
He closes his eyes and sags in relief.
“Did you think I’d say no?”
“You’ve got a life here,” he says.
I cup his precious beautiful face, and raise up on my toes to kiss him.
“You silly man. My life is here,” I point at my heart.
“And here.” I point at his.
He smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know baby, but…you had a plan.” He strokes the stack of bracelets on my wrist.
“Yes, but my dream came true today, and so my plans have changed. I want to come with you. I can paint anywhere.”
His smile is sunshine breaking through the clouds. He pulls me into a good old fashioned hug before he lifts me off my feet.
“Okay, I’ll have Dean get you an expedited passport. They can do it in hours. You’ll love Berlin and our last stop is Paris. I can’t wait to show you,” he says when he puts me down.
My heart is full to bursting. I’m not the girl in the fairytales I grew up reading. And yet somehow, I’m being given all of her treasures.
“I have one condition.” I smile mischievously.
He laughs. “Hit me with it.”
“Promise not to serenade me on stage every night?”
“What? Once is enough for you?” he says with mock affront.
“I’m sure someone got it on camera. So we can just relive the moment any time we want.”
“That’s cool. As long as we can relive the after party,” he quips and carries me back to bed.
When he kisses me, I don’t close my eyes, and neither does he and in his, I see forever.
68
Beth
Between Now and Forever
“Can you believe it?” I ask Carter when I hang up my call with Dina.
He looks up from the piano where he’s been sitting with his iPad in his lap and shrugs. “That Duke is getting married again or that he and your stepmother are bumping uglies? Nothing about those people surprises me.”
“Both. I wonder if my father knew.”
“If he did, I’d be shocked that he cared.”
