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It felt like another miracle. One more in a long line of them. If holding her again felt like home, then kissing her felt like heaven. My soul settled perfectly, where all the sadness and pain melted away into pure ecstasy.
I moved one hand up to cup her cheek and neck gingerly, tipping her head back to deepen the kiss, just slightly.
On a gasp, she pulled away. Immediately, I released her.
“What’s wrong?” Had I hurt her? The thought made me cringe.
She pressed her hand to her head. “Another memory.”
Then, a joyful laugh escaped from her. “A kiss. Our first kiss! I remember it,” she said with amazement.
My grin spread in response. “The porch?”
She nodded, then her eyebrow furrowed. “Were we… fighting?”
“Of course, you remember that part,” I said with a chuckle.
“Not exactly… It’s still fuzzy. But maybe we can remember together?” She pursed her lips. “I remember jabbing my finger into your chest, upset about something.”
She stepped close, reenacting the memory and pressing her finger just below my shoulder. She’d been a bit more forceful when it happened last time, but I wouldn’t complain. She might have left a bruise, if I remembered correctly.
Her eyes were on her finger, her voice quiet and contemplative. As though she were reliving the memory all over again. “And then…” She glanced up at me.
“I grabbed your hand,” I supplied quietly, taking her fingers in mine, like I had the night on Carla’s porch, while our friends watched the Super Bowl inside.
She nodded. “Yes. And then you said…”
I was more than willing to roleplay this scenario. “If you wanted to touch me, all you had to do was say so.” The corner of her lip quirked, just like it had four months ago. “To which you replied?” I let my words lilt upward, leaving her to fill in the blank.
“You wish,” she said, fighting her smile.
“And then I brushed back your hair,” I said, repeating the action I’d taken that night, “and admitted that maybe I had made that wish a time or two. I told you how I’d wondered what it would be like to have you look at me as more than somebody who was friends with your brother. That I’d thought about kissing you.”
“And I said… Kiss me then.”
So, I did. That night on the porch, I kissed her with everything inside me, with no idea where it would lead us.
And now. I lowered my lips to hers again, remembering how the intensity of our argument that night and the tension leading up to it had overflowed into the passion of the kiss. I loved knowing that she remembered how our relationship had started. It felt a bit like we were standing on even ground for the first time since her accident.
I gentled the kiss, pulling back slightly to press another one to her cheek and then her forehead.
“You remember,” I said, my voice tinged with awe at the gift I’d just been given.
She nodded. “I do. I wish I had more though. There’s so much more,” she said sadly.
“There is, but that’s okay. We’ll discover it together, okay?” I tucked her under my chin and lifted my eyes toward the ceiling, praising God for the gift of the few memories she’d gained. It was our second miracle, the first being that she survived the crash in the first place.
“Come on. It’s almost lunchtime. Let’s get you some groceries.”
Her stomach rumbled. “Maybe we should start with lunch. Then groceries?”
I laughed. “Works for me. I’m all yours today.”
“Just today?” she asked with a wink, making my pulse climb at the insinuation.
“Always,” I reassured her.
* * *
