AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The smile she gives me is wistful. She finishes showing me every inch of the place, with hushed cackles of laughter and teasing, and we go back outside. I follow her to the stage, where she takes the stairs two at a time.
“Is this safe to walk on?” One entire side has sunk into the earth, and the surface of the stage has a large crack splintering through it. She sits on the edge, dangles her feet off the side, and pats the surface next to her.
“I’m hoping this part is.” She giggles. “Come here. We have some time to make up for, Sebastian Tate.”
And then I’m joining her, sitting next to her, my heart beating rapidly at the way her face shines in the filtered moonlight. She twists to face me, and then she kisses me. Her lips are urgent, forgiving, inviting, and I sink into the sensations of kissing the woman I love. The taste of her is something I’ll never give up again. How she feels against me, it’s something more beautiful, more meaningful, than I’ve ever known.
When she pulls away, she whispers that she loves me, and she’s forever imprinted on my soul. “I made something for you. Or I guess I should say I’m having something built for you,” I say. “But you left before I could show you.”
“What is it?” Her face holds a giddy excitement, and her hair is wild against the moonlit sky.
“You’re going to have to come back to see it.”
“No hints? Is it your house? Is it finished?”
“My house? No. I need your help to pick the paint colors, fixtures, and flooring.”
“I’d love to help with that. Have you told your family about it yet?”
"No."
“I want to be there when you show it to them. They’re going to flip.”
I scramble to stand and offer my hand so she can join me. We embrace, and I tug her closer. “So, what are we going to do? Is it Longdale or Dana Point? Because I don’t want to be apart from you, Elianna.” My voice is huskier than I thought it would be.
“These past two months? Worst of my life without you.”
My chest swells. She loves me and I love her. It’s simple and so sweet. “How about this? I purchase a place here in Dana Point and you live there since Dori is great and all, but you don’t need to keep living on her couch. And we make some important decisions on the house in Longdale. I want you to pick what you like for that house. It needs your touch. And then we have two places. And once the Longdale community theater is back and running, you can work there or here, depending on the season?”
She answers me with a kiss, achingly beautiful and tender. “As long as my future has you in it, I don’t care where I am.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Let’s enjoy this moment, here and now.” She rotates so that her back is snuggled up against my chest. I wrap my arms around her, taking in everything about her. I’ve fallen in love with every part of her, body and soul.
And we do savor the moment, talking and laughing, stealing kisses like oxygen we’ve been deprived of.
Nothing could be better than being with Elianna, my best friend, my companion, the reason for it all.
Epilogue
Elianna
“Surprise!” Sebastian and I yell out to our families standing in the driveway at our mountaintop home, the quizzical looks on their faces making me laugh.
“Thanks for coming up here under false pretenses. Sorry, but there’s not actually going to be a picnic,” Sebastian says.
“It’s a house!” Sophie states the obvious. Everyone gives a polite, albeit confused, laugh. I glance behind me at the board and batten two-story, painted in the decidedly Sebastian-esque color of “Nightfall,” a rich, blackened grey with subtle blue undertones.
“Aw, you shouldn’t have, guys, thanks so much.” Oliver makes a show of stepping up onto the front wraparound porch and moving to open the door.
But there’s a big, red bow all across the front, so he wouldn’t have been able to open it even if we let him try. Sebastian heads him off, slapping his back and rotating him around to return to the freshly sodded lawn.
I breathe in the springtime air. It’s layered with pine, flowering trees, and the scent of the lake waking up from a winter’s sleep. Sebastian slings an arm around my shoulder, tugs me close, and then rests his hand on my waist. It’s a move that’s become so familiar that I could have not even really noticed it.
But I do. I don’t want to take for granted what I have with this remarkable man ever again.
He gives me a little nudge.
