AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How could anyone else ever have compared?” I asked, shaking my head. “I tried. Dating. I gave it the old college try. But everyone was being stacked up against a decade of history with someone who knew me better than anyone else ever could. It was never going to happen. There was never going to be anyone else.”
“Don’t say that. You’re still young. You can find another guy.”
“Seeley,” I called, waiting until he finally gave in and looked at me. “There is nobody else,” I told him.
Because I knew, in my heart, in my soul, in my bones, that it was the truth.
No one else stood a chance. I’d stopped trying to find someone who could a long, long time ago.
No one could have filled the void in my heart that Seeley’s absence created.
“Ama, don’t fucking do this to me,” Seeley demanded. “I can’t lose you a third time, okay?”
My hand slid down his forearm, curving under his palm, then slipping my fingers between his.
“I don’t want to lose you again either,” I told him, giving his hand a squeeze.
Seeley’s jaw just got tighter, though, a muscle ticking incessantly there.
“I’m not the right guy, remember?” he asked.
“Who told you that?” I asked, slowly getting up. “She’s clearly an idiot,” I added as I slowly turned, then planted a knee at one side of his body, then the other, lowering down to straddle his waist.
“She’s actually the smartest woman I know,” he said, his whole body tense, still uncertain.
“You know, I know a lot of smart people. And do you want to know something?” I asked.
“What?”
“Sometimes really brainy people can be really emotionally dumb,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Yes,” I confirmed, wrapping my arms around his neck—cast and all. “But they eventually come around.”
“Do they?” he asked, and his hands finally moved from their positions at his sides, going up my sides, then sliding to wrap around my back.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “The question is, though, if the other person is patient enough to wait for them to smarten up.”
“I think a guy can find a lot of patience when it’s the right woman,” Seeley said, making my heart squeeze in my chest as his arms finally started to tighten around me.
“Well, she’s lucky then,” I declared, leaning down to press my forehead to his, closing my eyes tight, just letting myself soak up this moment.
The moment I let all that old shit go.
The moment I was choosing happiness, even if it was unconventional.
“Hey, Seeley?” I called, voice low.
“Yeah?”
“I’m not going to wake up alone again, am I?” I asked.
Seeley’s hands slid up, grabbing either side of my face, and pulling me back.
“Ama, look at me,” he demanded, voice soft but commanding at the same time as his thumbs traced over my cheeks. My eyelids fluttered open, finding his intense gaze on me. “This time, if someone is going to walk away, it’s going to have to be you. I’m in this. I’ve always fucking been in this, but now I’m in this for good. So, no, you won’t be waking up alone. You don’t have to worry about shit like that ever again, okay?”
Any lingering reservations, little bits of hurt I’d still been carrying around with me over all these years, fell away at his words, at the sincerity in his voice.
