Page 43 of The Truth About Love

“Of course, it is.”

No other words come to me.

I can’t think through the deafening sound of blood whooshing in my ears. Can’t breathe because my damn heart is beating so hard. Can’t feel anything but tingles in every extremity in my body, as if I’m experiencing pins and needles everywhere. And yet, the feeling isn’t uncomfortable.

It’s thrilling. Electrifying. Euphoric.

“Summer-Raine,” Auden’s warm hands take mine, “is that okay? I know it’s kinda terrifying,fuck,it scares me so much I can’t sleep at night. But I needed you to know, you know? And you don’t have to say it back, not right now, not until you’re ready. I know how you feel without needing to hear those words from you, but I wanted you to hear them from me. So, is it okay, baby? Is it okay that I love you?”

Words are lost to me. For the first time since I learned to speak, I find myself without language.

It’s as if I’m a child again. Like his beautiful confession has reverted me back to a time before I knew who I was. Because I suddenly don’t know anything other than the way his words feel settling in my soul.

They are fatal and life affirming all at once.

With his confession of love, he has both murdered the old Summer-Raine and given life to a new one.

Because, from this moment on, I will forever be the girl who is loved by Auden Wells.

And I’ll never be the same again.

Chapter Eleven

Auden

We’re sitting on her balcony, cuddled up together in the old wicker chair like we always are, as we wait for the New Year’s firework display to start. They’re being set off just a little way across the bay, so they should be as clear for us to see than if we were watching from the beachfront directly underneath them.

Summer-Raine has been quiet since I gave her my gift at the diner. Not awkwardly or solemnly so, just calmly pensive. Like she’s giving herself time to absorb my words and adjust to her new reality.

I know that no one other than her sister has told her that they love her. She confessed that truth in a breathy whisper as I drove us home, worrying that she’d disappointed me because she hadn’t known how to react.

She worries too much about what I think.

I wish she’d accept that I love her for her, for all her quirks and whimsies and idiosyncrasies. For both her darkness and her light.

All I want is to take care of her. To keep her so safe that her monsters wither away, to love her so fiercely that I can heal every hollow in her heart.

“It’s starting,” Summer-Raine whispers, pulling me from my thoughts.

Base thrums as a voice comes over a booming sound system, beginning the countdown to the New Year.

Together, we count down from ten, our lips getting closer with every passing second until finally the first firework explodes and her mouth is on mine.

We miss the entire display. The sparks flying between us are so much brighter, so much more explosive than the bursting lights in the sky above. My hand winds into her hair, clutching her head to me in fear of her disappearing into thin air. Because, surely, she’s too good to be true. Too beautiful to ever belong to me.

And yet, she does.

She’s mine, just as I am hers. And I don’t ever see a time in our lives when that will be different.

We may be young, but your heart knows when it’s found its home. Eighteen isn’t too early to know that for certain, despite what grown adults like to tell us. They assume we know nothing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m not old enough to drink, but I’m old enough to love Summer-Raine. And I know that I’ll never stop.

I’m breathless when she pulls away, skimming her fingers down the side of my face.

“This really has been the best birthday I’ve ever had,” she says with a gentle smile.

“I did good?”

“So good.” She leans forward and presses the tip of her nose to mine in an Eskimo kiss, her eyes shut tightly as she prepares herself to say something. “Tell me again.”

---