AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is perfect, baby,” he whispers, his chin resting on my shoulder as we stare out at the Bay.
I relax into him more. “It’s time for a sunrise. Our lives have been filled with countless sunsets. Time to start fresh with new traditions. I want just as many sunrises as sunsets.”
Sunrises are the start of something new and invigorating. Although Gavin and I have known each other for what feels like a lifetime, we hit a snafu. A fault we couldn’t scale until the time was right. During that time, we grew. Into ourselves and into adulthood. We had the chance to discover who we are without each other. And fate still found a way to reconnect us. Make us whole again. Give us a chance to start anew.
A sunrise after the darkest sunset.
The sky pinks near the horizon and Gavin squeezes me tighter. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Believe me when I say, if I had known it’d be this long, I would have done things differently.”
I shake my head. “No, Gavin. Everything is how it’s meant to be. Was our time apart the most gut-wrenching experience of my life? Yes. There has been no pain worse than losing you. Never will be. But would I change any of it? I don’t think I would. It sounds wrong, but I think the years have taught us so much. Taught us how to love. Showed us what we’d miss without one another. Many couples stay together for years and grow unhappy with their relationship. A rift divides them and they fall out of love.” I pause, take a deep breath, and collect myself. “If that would’ve happened between us… as hurt as I was when we lost touch, I never stopped loving you. I suppressed it. Smothered it. Buried it deep in the corners of my heart and packed it tight with dirt. But it has always been there.”
Gavin inhales deeply and drags me impossibly closer to him. “I could never not love you, Cora Davies.” Everything about his statement is permanent, carved in stone, and I fall inconceivably harder for him.
The light pink sky blooms into a hot pink-orange as the sun edges closer to the horizon. Darkness fades from the sky as a faint blue comes into view. Another couple walks onto the sand and sits fifty feet from us, phone out and snapping images of the glowing scenery.
I lean my head against Gavin and marvel in his warmth behind me. His arms holding me close. His fingers drawing soft patterns on my forearms. I sigh and feel the pain of the last thirteen years lift away. Beautiful colors paint the sky. A few clouds linger and add touches of lavender and gray. Feeling like I can finally breathe for the first time in over a decade, I whisper, “Life is perfect.”
Gavin shakes his head beside me, and I turn to glimpse his expression. A smile stretches his face from ear to ear and displays his perfect white teeth. “There’s only one thing that could make life perfect.”
His steely-gray irises swirl with love and passion and admiration. I get lost in his eyes. Eyes I missed every day. Eyes no camera captured the way my memories did. Momentarily, I forget what he said and shake my head to snap myself out of the temporary fog.
“And what’s that?” I ask, matching his smile.
He lifts an arm from my waist, cups my cheek, and brushes his thumb in small circles. I lean into his touch and sigh. His other arm holds me unimaginably closer. Eyes hold mine as he breathes slow and steady. Quiet for a beat, his expression turns intense. Fierce. One-hundred-percent serious. His lips part and I drop my gaze just as he licks them. “If you were my wife.”
All air gets sucked from my lungs.
