Page 61 of We Can Forever

Could this be it? What they call the real deal?

Hannah letting us stay with her this evening suggests that she’s seeing it too. The first time she started flaring around me, she couldn’t shut the door in my face fast enough. And now…

She’s showing me the most sensitive part of her life. Trusting me with it.

And I get it. I see why she has to plan everything out, why she always has to measure her spoons. I also see why she hides it to some degree—not everyone is understanding.

But I can be. Hell, I can be more than understanding.

I can embrace this part of life. Work with it.

If she’ll let me.

Katie notices me hovering outside the doorway. “What are you doing?”

“Uh, nothing. Just didn’t want to interrupt what looked like a good part.”

I busy myself with distributing the food, and the three of us sit together, eating and watching the movie. I don’t register one thing that happens on the screen, though. For me, it’s all about who’s in this room with me. These two people are the most important ones in the world—it doesn’t matter that I’ve only known Hannah a handful of weeks.

She feels like family. Like the place I’ve been aching for all these years.

Finished with her soup, Katie snuggles under a throw between Hannah and me, her eyelids getting heavy. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Hannah smiling. Despite her pain and exhaustion, she’s happy.

Just as happy as I am right now?

The thought makes my heart so full, it nearly bursts from my chest.

Catching me watching, Hannah looks at me.

I love you, I silently mouth.

She gazes at me for a long moment. I don’t expect her to say it back. I simply couldn’t keep it in any longer, couldn’t keep walking around with her not knowing.

I love you, she mouths back.

We hold our gaze, and I’m sure that life continues on around us. People go to work. They walk their dogs. Pay their bills. Watch the sunset.

But if that’s happening, I wouldn’t know it. For me, the whole world is right here, right in front of me.

Chapter Twenty-One

HANNAH

“Hold on.” Michael jumps out of his truck and hurries around the front of it, but I already have the door open by the time he reaches where I’m at on the passenger’s side.

“I can get out,” I laugh.

“Okay.” He steps back, but his hand is still outstretched. So I take it.

“Only because I want to touch you,” I clarify, getting out of his truck and planting my feet in my driveway.

He grins. “I don’t care about the reason, as long as you’re touching me.”

Pushing onto my tiptoes, I kiss him long and good. Love and carnal desire swirl through me, and the kiss deepens. His strong hands find my waist, where they dig into my shirt. He’s holding back, probably conscious of the fact that Carol is undoubtedly watching us through the window.

But I don’t really care. I’m happy, and I want the whole world to know.

Breaking the kiss, I gaze up into his eyes. “Thank you for driving me home.”

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