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“Do you need a ride? I can drive you.”
As great as the idea sounds, I decline his offer. The last thing I need is to lose my shit with a guy that resembles the reason why I am crying. All that would lead to is another hot mess.
After I pack up my camera equipment, I find the bride and groom and apologize for my early departure. Thankfully, all the necessary photos for the wedding have been captured. Now it is just flat out party time. They hug and thank me and then I bolt out the door. Away from the reminder of broken promises.
When I reach my car, I set everything in the back then get in the car and lock the doors. I sit there, alone in the lot, for over thirty minutes, crying in my hands. Sobbing as if I am sixteen all over again.
Over the last decade, I have lost so much in my life. All of that loss wraps around one person.
Gavin Hunt.
Losing Gavin was like cutting out my heart with a spoon and tossing it in the darkest, deepest parts of the ocean. Without him, I had no reason to love. No desire to love. Nothing has changed. Over the years, brick by brick, I slowly built a towering wall around the space where my heart once sat. Reinforced it with steel beams and barbed wire. Hardened myself to everyone. Family. Friends. I would never allow someone to do to me what Gavin Hunt did—crush my heart and run away with my soul.
Right here, in the parking lot of the reception hall, where two lovers celebrate their joyous union, I make a vow to myself. A vow that will never be broken, because I hold the key. I am the gatekeeper of this truth.
“I will never open my heart to anyone ever again. I will never love another person ever again. And I most definitely will never marry anyone.”
Twenty-Two
Gavin
Present
“Life is perfect,” Cora whispers as we stare toward the rising sun.
Now that things are finally back as they should be, now that the stars have realigned and I can breathe, life is pretty great. But I wouldn’t say life is perfect. Pretty close, but not quite.
I shake my head and Cora peers over at me. My smile stretches so tight my cheeks hurt. I can’t help it. This is what she does to me—shines a light on every shadow, lifts me up, makes me feel alive and whole and worthy. When I am with her, life is worth living. A life with her is worth living.
“There’s only one thing that could make life perfect,” I tell her. For some reason, I feel as if I should be nervous. Should have sweaty palms or be biting my lip or fidgeting. But I don’t have a nervous bone in my body. If anything, I have never felt calmer a day in my life.
Cora studies me intently, her vibrant green eyes glowing in sunrise. She scans my eyes and forehead before dropping to my lips. She is absolutely stunning right now and I make a mental note to see a million more sunrises with her at my side.
As if coming out of a daze, Cora shakes her head and asks, “And what’s that?” A hint of teasing lingers on her tongue.
But I am dead serious. More serious than ever. More than any other time in my life. Nothing in my life or this world matters if Cora isn’t beside me. And I want her beside me through it all. The good days and bad. Our young days and old. With children and grandchildren. I want it all, and only with her.
I peel one arm away from her waist, frame her cheek in my palm, and swipe my thumb over the soft skin below her cheekbone. As soon as I do, she leans her face into my palm and I scoot closer to her. I stare into her magnificent green irises—a perfect blend of the trees and the sea.
Cora is everything I want in my life. Beauty and charisma and spunk and passion. She holds the key to my heart and is the guardian of my soul. In the last thirteen years, she has never left me—in spirit, anyway. Every woman I looked at was compared to her. And there was no contest. Hands down, Cora is it for me. There is not a single person walking this earth I want more than her. She gives me breath and life and purpose and love. Without her, I wander the earth with no destination.
“If you were my wife,” I announce.
Cora gasps and freezes in my arms. For three of my breaths, she doesn’t breathe once. And then she inhales deeply. Deeper than I have ever heard another person breathe. “Gavin…” She says my name as if it is her dying breath.
“Cora, I have spent far too much time away from you. Without you, I am a shell of a man. Every second we were apart, I merely existed. It wasn’t until I saw you again that I remembered how to breathe. That my heart remembered it had another purpose other than beating. I dreamt of this day, but feared it would never happen. No more. Life is too short to not spend it with the person who matters most.” I spin around to face her and prop myself up on one knee. “Cora, I know what life is like without you in it. I never wish to experience pain or darkness like that again. Nor do I want you to. The day my plane touched down here, I somehow knew life would be better. I didn’t have the answers, but I felt it in my bones. And I wasn’t wrong. How could it not be kismet bringing us back together? I belong to you, Cora. And I would be honored to be your husband. Will you marry me?”
Behind Cora, the other couple on the beach have their camera turned toward us. No doubt they’re recording this. Another win in my favor.
Please let her say yes.
When she doesn’t say anything for a moment, I remember the box is still in my pocket. Maybe if she sees the ring I bought, she will realize just how serious I am. I fish the soft, black box from my pocket and lift the lid. Nestled inside the box is a two-carat, square-cut black diamond in a tall setting. Along each edge of the black diamond are three smaller white diamonds. Several white diamond chips burrow in the titanium band from top to bottom. Hugging the engagement band is a matching wedding band with larger white diamonds.
Her hands fly to cover her mouth as she gasps. A second later, she lowers them to her chin. “Gavin…” she whispers. “Oh my god.” Her glazed green eyes dart to mine and tears spill out, sliding down to her illustrious smile. “Yes. A million times yes.” Cora crawls up on her hands and knees and launches herself at me. We fall to the sand and laugh.
I wrap my arms around her body and squeeze her with every ounce of strength I possess. “Fuck, baby. I love you so goddamn much.”
After a minute, I sit us up and kiss the hell out of her. She tastes like salt and passion and forever. The best fucking taste in the world. And I am the luckiest man alive because she just said I get to keep her forever.
