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She smiled softly when I called her darling, but her face turned serious quickly after that. “I never intended to stay away forever. It was always my plan to come back. I hoped it wouldn’t take long, but I guess it did.”
She was gone for one hundred and sixty-eight days. I counted. Maybe it was not long for other people, but it felt like forever to me. Yet I wouldn’t care waiting hundred and sixty-eight years if I was going to have her back at the end. I kept hoping, but my logical side always said that she was gone for good.
“You are back?” I asked, my throat dry. “For good?”
Again, she nibbled her bottom lip. “Well, I am if you take me.”
Laughter bubbled up in me, but I was more angry than happy. “Do you really believe I am not going to take you?”
Kira shook her head, but I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. “I left you,” she said with a small voice, and sadness filled her eyes. “I had to do it, Gabriele. You were right. I was not free. I was not healed. I needed you for everything. You were keeping me together, but I was already broken. I needed to get better on my own. You deserved a better version of me.” I opened my mouth to disagree, but Kira put her finger on my lips to silence me. “No, don’t say anything. I have to tell you. I have to explain why I left. You may not accept me back or accept me without even hearing all this buy you have to hear it nonetheless.
“I wanted to see that I could do it on my own. I wanted to not be broken anymore. I was not going to try to kill myself because of the baby, but I knew I was still fucked in the head. I went to therapy in Moscow. I met with my mom. She helped me along the way, but I didn’t let her be the one to keep me together like you did. I wanted to heal on my own. I even got a job before I got too big. I had some friends too. I managed to live on my own. I learned to stay alive on my own.”
My heart filled with so much happiness. This was what I wanted for her all along. And if she needed to get away to have this, I would endure the pain of being without her. The only thing that mattered was her healing and her happiness.
She didn’t need me anymore. “But you are still back?”
Kira nodded and got even closer to me. Her belly was almost touching me. “I am not healed fully. I want to find another therapist here. But I couldn’t stay away longer. I saw a question online. It was about where you would want to be if you could be anywhere in the world, and my first thought was beside you. I was most happy when I was with you.” her eyes filled with tears. “Then I went for a check-up and realized I didn’t want to give birth alone. I mean, I would have my mother, but that was not enough. I want you beside me when I give birth to our baby. I want us to be a family.
“I know how to survive by myself. Icansurvive by myself, but I don’t want to. I want you.”
My heart jumped in my chest. I reached up and held her face in one hand and wrapped my other arm around her waist. “I want you too, Kira. I have always wanted you.” Then I kissed her lips.
After one hundred and sixty-eight days, I tasted heaven on her lips. Not a lengthy kiss. Short and slow and sweet. I just wanted to seal my promise. I had another question.
When I pulled back both of us smiling, my eyes went to her belly. She put a hand under it. “It is a boy,” she whispered.
My throat tightened. My mouth went dry. I hesitantly touched her belly. Trying to feel my boy there. “My boy.”
Kira nodded. A few tears had slid to her cheeks, but she was beaming up at me. She was so fucking beautiful. “He is very healthy.” Then pink spread to her cheeks. “I actually called Priscilla to ask for a private jet. I am almost thirty weeks along and didn’t want to risk anything.”
I caressed her stomach and kissed the pink on her cheek and nose. She didn’t need to be embarrassed for wanting something. She could have everything of mine. After capturing my heart and soul, my money didn’t worth much anyway. “You did the right thing. We will find the best doctor for you.” I kissed her lips softly. “And the best therapist.”
Kira smiled up at me. I didn’t remember seeing her this happy. I didn’t remember being this happy myself.
She took a deep breath, and her hands came to my chest. “So, we are gonna be together? Just like that?”
I felt a slight sting in my chest. “Is that not what you want? We lost too much time. I just want you, Kira. I want us to be a family, but if you don’t want that, I will gladly take any scraps you throw my way as long as you are happy.”
Kira shook her head frantically. “You are so silly. I don’t deserve you.”
I opened my mouth to say she was wrong. She deserved everything. But Kira shut me up once again. This time not with pressing her finger to my mouth but instead pressing her lips. She kissed me, and I forgot what I was about to say. It didn’t matter.
I had to kiss her forever.
“Gabriele,” she breathed into my mouth, and I got so impossibly hard. I knew what that throaty breath meant. I could imagine how wet she was between her legs. I pressed her more into me.
She was more attractive than she had ever been. She seemed healthy and happy. She didn’t have that broken look in her eyes. She was better, and she was back for me.
She loved me.
And I loved her.
I was filled with the need to tell her because I never did before. I pulled back only to whisper into her lips. “I love you, Kira. I have loved you for years.”
Her breath hitched. “I love you too, Gabriele.” Something sad filled her eyes. “I am sorry I never said it before. I didn’t have the courage.”
That made me smile too wide. I pushed back a strand of red hair. “You did say it, darling. You said it too many times.”
