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His head raises when I step out onto my deck and the smile he gives me threatens to take my feet out from under me. He’s looking at me like he’s never seen a star before and I’m a whole galaxy. I’m not sure I’m worthy of such unabashed affection and wonder.
He crosses over to my deck and up the stairs, still smiling when he reaches me.
“How did you sleep?” he asks and my abdomen tightens at the raspy quality of his morning voice.
“Terrible. You?”
He chuckles. “The same.”
Our eyes lock and there’s a boyish vulnerability there that makes my heart pick up speed. Whatever he’s about to give me means a lot to him. It was enough to lose sleep over. I start to toy with the sleeves of my oversized sweater, but he catches my fidgeting hands in his strong ones.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his brow furrowed in concern.
“Just nervous,” I say on a breathy laugh.
He gives me an encouraging look before dropping my hands and pulling something out of his hoodie pocket. He takes a second to smooth it out, then places it in my awaiting hands.
It’s a folded piece of high-quality parchment, with my name scrawled in beautiful cursive on one side. I flip it over in my hand, letting out a little gasp when I see the beautiful gold floral wax seal.
“I wrote this a few days ago,” he explains. “I had planned on giving it to you the day you fell, but then it didn’t seem like a good time. It’s an apology, but there’s some other things in there too.” He takes in a long breath and lets it out. “I know you have to take Caroline to the airport, so just read it once you’re back home alone.”
I run my fingertip over the wax seal.He wrote me a letter.Our conversation about the lost art of letter writing comes back to me and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from tearing up.
“Or if you want to wait until tomorrow to read it, or never read it at all. I understand.” He clears his throat, drawing my eyes back up to him.
“You’re cute when you’re nervous,” I tease him. The muscles around his eyes and mouth relax at my words.
“I’m not sure how I feel about being called cute.” He attempts a scowl, but his mouth is tugging up at the edges.
“You love it.”
“I’ve heard people say the line between love and hate is thin.”
I laugh and shake my head at him. His phone beeps and he pulls it out of his pocket to silence it.
“Forgot to turn off my usual alarms, but I should probably go get ready for work anyway. Do you want me to drop Murphy off or let him stay in my house while you go to the airport?”
“You can let him run back over here. I’m sure you’re tired of him hogging your couch.”
“It’s not so bad.” He pauses and gives me a meaningful look. “Drive safe, airport traffic is terrible.”
I don’t think this feeling of utter safety when I’m with him will ever get old. Growing up in a house where no one cared about me except when they were angry with me has made his simple words mean so much more. He saiddrive safe, but my heart heard:you matter.
“I will.” I hold up the letter. “And I’ll read this once I’m back home.”
His eyes flick to the letter and back to my face. It’s sweet that he cares enough to be nervous, especially since he’s the kind of man who doesn’t seem to ever be anxious.
“Sounds good. I’ll send Murphy over.” He smiles and then walks back over to his house.
“Hey, Sunshine?” I call out as he opens the door for Murphy. “Thank you for the letter.”
“You don’t know what’s in it. You might hate it.”
“I won’t hate it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Josh, can I keep her,please?” I ask the burly, bearded man on Caroline’s phone screen. We’re waiting for her plane to board at the airport, so Caroline decided to check in with her husband while he was on his break at the hospital.
