Page 16 of Uniquely in Love

I laughed. “One time is definitely not enough.”One night would never be enough. It had been like this between us before. Teasing each other, a playful banter that I’d missed so much. We’d both been so young that I hadn’t appreciated how easy it was with her until she was gone.

Ellie didn’t respond. She got up, unzipping her dress as she walked towards the bathroom, letting it drop to the floor before she closed the door, winking at me. Giving me aglimpse of that perfect ass, the perfect handful of soft skin that I wanted to sink my teeth into.

Groaning, I rolled onto my back, draping an arm over my face as I heard the water run in the bathroom.

God, she had no idea what she did to me. It was better that way, though.

If she knew how much of my heart she held in her hands, even after all this time, I’d never survive it.

I lookedat her sleeping form, wearing the giant t-shirt she’d pulled on when she’d come back out from the bathroom earlier. Despite both being exhausted, we hadn’t been able to keep our hands off each other and it hadn’t taken long before wandering hands had turned into another round, and then we’d finally collapsed, falling asleep.

Her chest rose and fell as she slept, her body totally sated after wringing me out. I hadn’t come that hard in years. Damn, but I wished I could stay forever.

I wanted to hear her crying out my name when I made her come. To sleep beside her every night. To grow old together, knowing that the love of my life was in my arms.

But that wasn’t in the cards, not in the hand that we’d been dealt. I had a life in Seattle, and she had one here. Ellie would find a job, and she’d be her bubbly, outgoing self. Her students wouldn’t understand how lucky they were.

Finding my pants, I pulled them on, zipping them up as Ellie rolled over, hugging her pillow tighter. Thankfully, she didn’t wake up. I hunted around her desk until I found a piece of scrap paper.

Writing a note, I left it on her bedside table.

And even though every instinct of mine was screaming tostay, to keep her, I knew what this was.Closure. It was a goodbye. One last night.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, brushing her hair off her cheek, before standing and walking out the door. Leaving her behind.

“Goodbye, Ellie,” I whispered as I closed the door behind me.

I wished things were different.

But that didn’t change the fact that soon I’d be gone.

Nothing had changed.

Not for us.

No matter how much I wanted it to.

But as I slid into my car, the first rays of sunlight breaking the sky as I drove away, I knew it was time to finally move on.

SIX

Ellie

THEN

Freshman Year

Owen?” I opened the door to find him standing on my front porch, a bouquet of yellow daisies in his arms. “What are you doing here?”

I surveyed his attire. Blue button-up shirt and slacks. Was he trying to impress someone? I looked back at the flowers, and then I realized—oh.Me. He was trying to impress me.

“These are for you,” he said, offering me the bundle.

I giggled, taking them and burying my nose in the bouquet. “You didn’t have to get me flowers, Owen.”Again. He’d given me a bundle of daisies on the night he’d asked me to prom in the treehouse.

“I did. I do.” He cleared his throat. “I want to do this right, Ellie.”

A blush covered my cheeks, and I fiddled with the ends of the flowers in my arms. “Do you want to come inside?”

---