Page 143 of Love, Rekindled

“Nazareth?” The silence on the other ends blooms and ripens. “What about him?”

“He and I…” I blow out a breath. “I ran into him here in LA.”

“And?” she asks, the knowing loud in her softly asked question.

“We’re seeing each other.”

“Ahhhh. How long this been going on?”

“About a month. The trip to Italy—it was with him.”

“Takira.” Her chuckle on the other end of the line surprises me. “You don’t ever make things easy, do you?”

I find myself laughing back, shaking my head. “I guess not. What do you think Cliff will say?”

“He won’t like it. You know this, but he’s a grown man, right?”

“Do you think seeing Naz at the ceremony or finding out about us will set him back?”

I want her to say no. I want her to tell me it’s silly to even think so, but she found him. She was more traumatized by it than any of us.

“I don’t know,” she finally admits. “That boy…lots wasted, but he’s got a lot of life still ahead of him. He’ll have to decide what he’s gonna do with it. You can’t live for him, though. None of us can, and I’ve been guilty of that more than once.”

“I…I care about Naz,” I tell her, my resolve strengthening. “And I’m not giving him up.”

“All right now,” Mama says, sounding pleased. “Even more reason for you to come for the ceremony. That’s something Cliff needs to hear from you.Youneed to be the one to tell him.”

Her suggestion is still ringing in my ears when Naz arrives at my door a few minutes later.

“Hey,” I greet him with a pleased smile.

“Hey.” He bends to kiss me briefly, but his demeanor is subdued when he enters the apartment. He looks handsome and austere in his impeccably tailored dark jacket and slacks.

“Are you mad at me?” I ask, my voice sounding more uncertain than I’m used to it being, and I hate that.

He glances up, his full lips tightening, and takes the few strides that bring him back to me at the front door. He leaves me no space, placing his arms on either side of me, pressing his forehead to mine.

“I’m not mad at you, Kira,” he says, a raw edge to his voice. “I’m in love with you.”

A startled breath chuffs past my lips. I can’t pretend the notion hasn’t crossed my mind, crossed my heart, but we haven’tsaidit. I thought it was too soon, thought we should be more sure, but there is absolute certainty in the eyes that burn into mine, and that look finds an echo inside of me. An answer to his call.

“I love you,” he says again. “And I don’t want to hide that from the world by not walking a stupid red carpet that I usually don’t even care about but want to walk with you.”

“Naz—”

“And I for damn sure don’t want to hide it from your family.” He drops his nose to the juncture of my neck and shoulder. “But I will. If you aren’t ready to tell Cliff—if you’re scared it will set him back—that matters more to me than my desire to tell the world how I feel.”

He scoffs, shaking his head. “Me, who has always guarded my private life wanting to tell the world anything is crazy, but this…” He places a large, warm hand over my heart. “This, I want the world to know.”

“We kind of scooted right past the part where you said you love me,” I whisper, looking up at him, emotion burning my throat and tears welling in my eyes. “That seems important.”

“More important than keeping it from Cliff? From your family and the rest of the world?”

I ease up on my toes and spread my hand over his neck, drawing him down until only a breath separates our lips.

“Considering I love you, too,” I say, not heeding the tears slipping over my cheeks, “it seems more important than everything.”

He takes my lips or I take his—I don’t know which, but we take each other, and there’s somehow no end or beginning to it. This didn’t start twelve years ago on the rooftop of my house under a quarter moon. It didn’t begin under the Mediterranean sun or idling on the sea. It feels like it started when I was born, and everything in my life brought me to him and him to me—like all the times we were apart were held breaths, and here together, in each other’s arms, we can finally breathe.

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