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“No.” I spoke to both of us. “I don’t love him.”
“Do you want to move on?” Rhys’s fingertips tickled my sides as they roamed along my skin beneath my robe.
“It’s all I want,” I declared, moving as close as I could to him. “As long as it’s with you, but…” My stomach twisted and I fought the urge to cry again, choking on a new nightmare. “It could never work between us, Rhys.”
My words slipped sorrowfully as I traced his jaw, staring into his dark eyes. Rhys mirrored me, his body towering above as his hold released. He took my breath away as his palms spread along my collarbone, my body readying for him as it had every moment we were alone together.
“Why?” He murmured above my left ear, his question and lips lingering there. His jaw, neglected from shaving during our Italian adventure, sent a shiver through me. Blinking away tears, I couldn’t answer. Rhys pressed his head against mine, holding my face in his warm palms. “This doesn’t mean I won’t still try, that we don’t belong together.”
I stepped back, hearing his soft sigh as I peered over the rooftops once more. “You have a life here in Europe.” I shrugged. “And I have a life there.”
“You recall,” his fingertips found mine, intertwining as he spoke, “having dinner with me and sleeping together at my home in New York. You remember I have a life there, and now you’re the reason it’s a meaningful one. I’m not him, Mia. I’m never going to ask you to give up part of you, the incredible world you’ve created, for me. You keep your life, I keep mine, they’re now just connected.” Rhys lifted my hand to his lips. “We can do this.”
His determined, hopeful stare was filled with unease. I let his words subdue the restless emotions toying with my heart.
“You said we could start over,” I murmured. “I thought I was the one, that I was okay alone because I could take care of myself, but that wasn’t it. I’ve been afraid this entire time.”
“Of what?” Rhys pressed, his dark eyes flicking between mine as he held my cheeks in his warm hands.
With a tear rolling along my cheek, tracing Rhys’s thumb, I found my words. “Falling for you. Moving on from me. I’m feeling homesick for a home I don’t even know if I’ve ever had. I don’t know where home is, Rhys. But I want to try it out there, with you.”
“Let me catch you.” He stole my heart. “Let us be your home.” I fell into Rhys’s embrace, melting in his love and security. “It will be beautiful together, Mia. I promise.”
Rhys held me under the stars, the warm dawn breaking over the coast. I could’ve stayed there forever, but I knew that feeling, its magic and love, would carry with me no matter where we were as long as we were together somehow.
Starting over wasn’t always a negative, and it wouldn’t be with as many mornings as our lives would allow us to wake up in love. We didn’t have a plan and, for the best reason, it didn’t matter. Being with Rhys was a life I could get used to, and I reveled in every possibility.
I didn’t regret not confronting Caleb on that trip the night we saw him outside of the restaurant. Nothing could’ve come from that. I knew that the second I could no longer find him in that crowd. Caleb wasn’t the one; he never was. He chose a life without me, and I was choosing my life. I knew that the first morning I woke in Rhys’s arms.
I vowed to no longer let the past interfere. It didn’t own me, and I wouldn’t let it cloud the present or the incredible future Rhys and I promised each other. I wanted to throw away the guidebook and let the wind take over.
Rhysreminded me of who I am, and that was what I needed in order to remember something important. In the end, the one is always me, but Rhys would always be my one.
I knew who I was, what and who I wanted, and that was more than enough for me.
THE END
