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“May I?” he asked, coming over and offering her his hand.
“Please,” she said, taking his hand and standing with him.
They barely moved away from the chairs before he encircled her with his arms, and she put hers around his neck.
“Is it just my imagination or do we fit together perfectly?”
“I think we fit together perfectly.” She humphed. “If we didn’t, I think that’s something we could work around. But what amazes me is that when you and I were talking earlier, I thought to myself that one of the signs for me that the Lord was in this would be that Kendrick would come around and that she would accept me. I thought it would take weeks if not months or more. And yet, she seemed to really get on board with the idea of having a mom, and she seemed to be okay with the idea of that being me.” She laughed and shook her head. “Not that I’m asking you to marry me or anything, just... I was so scared about making another huge mistake. I don’t want to be trapped in another terrible marriage. I don’t want to have an ex that I can barely stand, who did everything in his power to hurt me as much as he could. I just want to live a life with no drama.”
She was doing something to the hairs at the back of his neck, and he wanted to close his eyes, but he also didn’t want to miss a second of looking at her.
“But I don’t think that’s the kind of life God wants us to lead. I think He wants us to put ourselves out there, to know that life can be messy and hard at times. That even though it is, He wants us to look to Him, to get our strength from Him, and to use those messy times to grow and become better.”
He couldn’t agree more. Being with Peyton was far better than anything he’d experienced up to that point in his life. And he wouldn’t be the man he was if he hadn’t experienced all the bad times.
The first song ended, but neither of them moved to pull away. A second song started, and they started swaying again.
“I guess as long as there’s music, we’ll keep dancing,” he murmured.
“I have a confession to make.”
“Yeah?” he said, figuring he had a confession, too.
“That playlist will last us all night.”
He wasn’t expecting that and huffed out a soft laugh. “I like the way you think.”
“I was hoping you would.” She pulled back just a bit and looked up at him. “What is your confession?”
He stopped swaying, his body stilling. Could he tell her?
Maybe it was something he saw in her eyes. Something warm and reassuring. Something that said she was feeling the same things he was.
He decided to be bold.
“I want to kiss you.”
Her eyes widened a bit, but then her lips curved up. “That’s why I put so much music on my playlist. Hoping that if we danced long enough, you’d eventually feel like you had to kiss me to get rid of me.”
“I’m not interested in getting rid of you.” His head lowered. “But I am definitely interested in kissing you, and I didn’t need any music to make me feel that way.”
“Me, either,” she murmured just before his lips settled on hers.
It was a long time before he lifted his head, and dawn was streaking across the eastern sky before they stopped dancing and put their children to bed. They made it to church on time, but for Bryce, at least, it was hard to stay awake, even though he loved the celebration of the empty tomb and the sacrifice the cross represented.
As they sat down to Easter dinner—ham and potatoes that weren’t perfect and a pineapple casserole that was—their children between them, happily chatting, Bryce knew they might have said they’d take things slow, but he was sure Peyton was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
