Page 106 of If You Stayed

“She’s going to pay me, Gabriel. Can you believe that? With real money. Unlike the Monopoly money you used to pay me with when we were kids.”

“That was my good, hard-earned money, Kierra.”

“You stole it from my board game,” she argued.

“Borrowed,” I countered.

“You can’t borrow fake money and give it back to buy something from me.”

“I can and I did.” I hopped up from my seat and brushed my thumb against my nose. “And I still use that blanket you made me every night, thank you very much.”

She frowned and her bushy brows knit. “It was supposed to be a sweater, but I didn’t know how to crochet anything but a straight line back then.”

“In a few years, I could sell it for a million bucks. A Kierra original.”

“Only a million? I’m offended. You should at least go for three mil—”

“I love you,” I cut in.

Her eyes fluttered with confusion as her movements came to a halt. She tilted her head and she smiled shyly. “I love you, too, Gabriel.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I love you.”

“I heard you.”

“No,” I disagreed. I walked over to her and placed my hands on her shoulders. I swallowed hard, feeling as if my heart was going to tear straight out of my chest as my mouth opened. “I am in love with you, Kierra. Not the kind of friendship love. Not the we’ve-known-each-other-forever kind of love. But the kind of love where I want to kiss you more than anything else in the world. The kind of love where I dream about you and then wake up in my bed mad that you’re not there. The kind of love where I want to spend every day to come with you in my arms for the rest of forever.”

“Oh,” she whispered, her voice timid and low. “That kind of love.”

“Yeah. That kind of love.”

“Well.” She sighed. “What took you so long, dork?”

I arched a brow. “Wait, wha—”

Before I could reply, she kissed me. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she pulled me in, kissing me as if she’d been waiting for that day to come. It took a few moments for me to realize what was going on, but the moment I did, I kissed her with the same intensity, if not more. My hands fell against her lower back, and I pulled her closer to me, holding her as long as I could.

When our mouths parted slightly, she brushed her lips against mine and whispered, “Gabriel?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too. The rest-of-forever kind of love.”

“Oh. Well.Good.”

27

Kierra

Present Day

I returned home to find a dining room table filled with flowers. The house felt eerie as I walked inside. Sitting at the head of the table was Henry, who had a glass of dark liquor in his hands. He was wearing the same outfit as the night before, but his white button-down was undone, and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

He leaned back in the chair and raised his head to meet my stare. He huffed a little. “About damn time you came home.”

“I needed space to clear my head.”

“Let me guess, you still want a divorce.”

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