Page 28 of The Truth About Love

“Maybe he’s wrong,” I say finally. “Maybe not every addiction ends in damnation.”

She thinks on that a moment.

“Yeah maybe,” she whispers. “Or maybe we’re all just damned anyway.”

“Bit of a fatalist attitude to have, isn’t it?”

“Maybe I’m just realistic.”

Today must be a bad day. It’s like the colours of her have waned, the vibrancy of them weakened by her mood. I don’t know what’s triggered her tonight, but I do know that I can’t bear to see the defeated look on her beautiful face any longer.

Folding myself backwards into one of the two wicker chairs, I wrap my fingers around her wrist and tug her into my lap. She tenses immediately, finding herself in a position she’s never been before and not knowing which direction I’m going to take this.

But there’s nothing sexual about my intentions. I simply want to hold her.

“Relax, baby,” I whisper into her hair.

And that’s all it takes for her body to melt into me. She brings her knees up towards her, shifting so that I’m cradling her like a child and she tucks her head into the space beneath my chin.

For a while, we just sit there like that.

She traces tiny circles on my chest with her index finger, branding me with the lightest of touches. I stroke my hand absentmindedly through her hair and breathe in the sweet, citrusy smell of her.

It takes some time, but gradually the tension in Summer-Raine starts to ebb away. The pace of her breathing slows to match mine, the movement of her fingers on my chest grows lazy and languid.

“I’ve never been held like this before,” she whispers into the silence.

The caveman in me celebrates, but the truth is, I’ve never held anyone like this before either.

“What do you think?”

She sighs, nuzzling into my neck. “I think I could stay here forever.”

“Me too.”

She melds into me perfectly, fitting the shape of me as if we’re puzzle pieces. It’s like her body was made for mine to hold.

“How did you know what I needed?” she asks hesitantly after several moments of quietness.

Something in my soul told me what she needed before she knew herself.

“I don’t know.” I run my hand down her back and hold her tighter, brushing my lips across the top of her head. “Intuition, I guess.”

We fall back into comfortable silence, looking out over the dark waves that wash up on the small beach beneath us. The stars are out in their thousands tonight, sparkling against the blackness of the late-night sky. What I would do to spend every evening like this with her.

“It’s my birthday the beginning of November,” I say, speaking gently into the softness of her long hair. “We’re having a bonfire on the beach. Nothing big, not like the party tonight, just a small group of people chilling out and shit. Will you come? As my, um, date?”

The stroking of her fingers on my chest stills. I hear her suck in a nervous breath and I swallow down the fear that I’ve pushed her too far too soon.

“You don’t need to answer now,” I say hurriedly. “It’s weeks away, but maybe you could think about it?”

“Okay,” she breathes. “I can do that. I can think about it.”

It’s damn hard to stop the smile from spreading across my face. My birthday isn’t for another five weeks, that’s plenty of time for Summer-Raine to make up her mind that she doesn’t want to come, but hope blooms in my chest regardless.

It’d be the best present to have her celebrating my eighteenth birthday with me.

I check the time on my phone and groan. “I’ve gotta go, baby.”

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