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He nods, coming even closer. “That’s just it,” he says. “I figured it out. I thought I didn’t know how to love before, but that was because”—he raises a hand to my cheek—“I didn’t have you.”
Tears stream down my face now, my heart beating so hard I’m sure everyone can hear it.
“Oh for Christ’s sake!” Neil, the man at the backgammon table, calls out. “Just kiss her already!”
I laugh through my tears as the crowd around us starts to clap and call out in agreement.
“Am I too late?” Tristan whispers in my ear, loud enough only for me to hear.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Never too late, Tristan.”
“Good,” he whispers. “Because I love you, Cora. I love you so much it feels like dying being apart from you.”
I kiss him then. A tender, needy, loving, perfect kiss that takes all his words and all his love and entwines it with mine. His arms wrap around my back and the applause grows louder, some of the seniors even getting up out of their chairs.
“What do you think?” Tristan asks once he’s broken the kiss. I realize he’s not talking to me. He’s talking over my shoulder, to my best friends. “Did I do okay?”
“The kiss wasn’t quite as passionate as I told you to be,” Shirley admonished.
“Don’t listen to her,” Doreen tsks. You got Neil looking sentimental. I’d say you nailed it.”
I hug both my friends, then turn back to Tristan. “How long’s the assignment?” I ask. “After New Years.”
“Three months,” he says, wiping at my tears with his thumb. “It’ll go fast though, I promise. I could even get a social account or something if you want—”
I laugh. “You don’t even know what they’re called, do you?”
“Tweetster?” He winks.
I laugh, but then I throw my arms around Tristan, needing to feel he’s really there, that this whole thing wasn’t a terrible dream. When I pull back, I meet Tristan’s eyes.
“What if I come with you?”
Tristan’s eyebrows fly up. “To Borneo?”
“Yes. To Borneo, and to wherever else you work where you might want company.”
“Cora—”
For the briefest second, he doesn’t say anything, and my heart seizes with panic.Too much. Coming on too fast, too strong.
Then I remember how he was in Nicaragua yesterday, repairing the broken bridge between him and my brother. Maybe even getting his blessing to be here. I notice only now the shadows under Tristan’s eyes. Maybe someone else would consider that to be too much.
Not me. To me, it’s perfect. He’s perfect.
I let out the tightness in my chest.He loves me. Just the way I am.
“Cora, you’d make me the happiest man on earth,” Tristan says. “Actually, scratch that. I already am.”
Then, Tristan Galloway kisses me again. And I know, this time, it’s for keeps.
Epilogue
CORA
My stomach rumbles at the scent of food coming from L’Aubergine, the Rolling Hills resort’s flagship restaurant.
“What did the article say again?” I asked, threading my fingers through Tristan’s.
