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I blinked at him through my tears and nodded.
He jerked, his eyes wide with hope and his voice hoarse. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” I gave him a watery smile and said, “Give me something to forget, Pretty Boy.”
His mouth crashed down on mine, and everything else faded.
Live in the moment.
And make every single one of them as hard as fucking possible to forget.
I could do that.
Every moment with him would be worth it.
EPILOGUE
TEN YEARS LATER
LEON
Time seemed to stand still, my heart flooding with a depth of emotion that tightened my throat and squeezed my chest as Lissa floated down the aisle toward me on her Uncle Jim’s arm. Her platinum hair fell softly around her shoulders in loose waves, and the ivory-colored silk of her dress glided down over her slim curves, the smooth fabric shimmering under the golden rays of the late afternoon sun as it trailed the floor behind her.
Lissa looked like a fucking dream come true.
Because she was.
My dream. Always had been.
My throat locked up when her gaze lifted, and then she smiled.
Two glittering blue eyes slammed into mine with a dazzling intensity that hit like a sucker punch, and that smile still had the ability to knock me on my ass all these years later.
Ten years ago, I’d fallen for a woman who challenged me, who’d burrowed her way into my heart and embedded herself so fucking deep I couldn’t take a breath without feeling her there. She’d made me want to be a better man, made me understand what it meant to love someone so much you’d do anything for them. Any-fucking-thing. Almost overnight, Lissa had become the single most important thing in my life. That hadn’t changed. Not one bit.
I swallowed hard, my gaze following Lissa’s when a small figure wrapped in tulle and lace sprinted out of the procession and flew past me, launching herself into the outstretched arms of the guy standing to my right. My lips immediately pulled up into a grin as I turned and watched Ren sweep little Lola up against his chest, offering his daughter an indulgent smile as he gazed down at her with the same look of wonder and adoration he hadn’t been able to wipe off his face since the day she’d come screaming into this world.
At four years old, Lola Amy Renner had her daddy wrapped tight around her tiny little finger. The guy had been a goner from the moment she’d taken her first breath. My goddaughter was beautiful—a perfect blend of her mommy and daddy with Ren’s olive skin tone, a gleaming head of thick dark hair, and Riley’s sparkling emerald eyes.
Riley approached, standing off to the side as she met Ren’s gaze with a questioning brow arched halfway, silently asking if he wanted to hold on to their daughter. He gave her a wink and tightened his arms around his little girl.
Air filled my chest as my gaze swept back to Lissa.
I’d never dwelled on anything we might miss out living under the cloud of uncertainty that came with the threat of Alzheimer’s. Lissa was enough. For as long as we lived it, our life together was enough. But the day Ren had introduced me to his baby g
irl, cradling this tiny, squirming human in his big arms like he held the finest china, pride shining in his eyes like a supernova in the night sky, I’d felt my one and only pang of longing.
I’d sworn to Lissa once that I’d only ever want her, and I hadn’t lied. I’d made that promise with my eyes wide open, firmly in the knowledge that our lives might never be the same as everyone else’s. In a different life, I would have loved Lissa to be the mother of my kids, but I’d never want that with anyone else. Only her.
Not having Lissa in my life was never an option. Not for me. And if that meant some things weren’t meant to be, then so be it. I’d never seen it as a sacrifice.
Then everything changed.
Lissa was by her mom’s side right up until she passed away two years ago, displaying the kind of strength and love I was still in fucking awe of. A year after that, Lissa decided to go ahead with genetic testing to see if she carried the mutation that caused her mom’s illness.
Lissa tested negative.
And suddenly a sea of unending possibility stretched out before us.
