Page 117 of Before We Fell

Her whole body shook as her nails dug into my skin. I took her pain, absorbed it and felt it until I hurt as badly as she did. “I can’t…losing you the first time, it hurt so bad, Noah. I don’t know if I can risk it. If you push me away now—”

“I won’t.” I couldn’t. I hadn’t been able to push her out of my heart. Or my dreams. Or my thoughts. She was so far ingrained in every part of me she’d always be a part of my life. “Let me prove it to you. I can’t do that if you don’t give me a chance.”

I tugged her closer until I pressed my forehead to hers. Our hands were between us, and I twisted my hands so I could hold hers and placed her palms to my chest. I held them to my racing heart. “I’m so sorry, honey. I’m so sorry for hurting you. I love you—”

“I love you, too.”

Her fingers curled into my chest as she spoke the words. Like she was terrified of saying it to me. But she didn’t have a reason to be, despite the way I’d treated her.

I released a breath so heavy, my shoulders slumped and I let go of her hands, and wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight to me.

“You won’t regret it. I promise you. I will make it so you never regret loving me,” I whispered the words in her ear, and held her quaking body in my arms.

“I know.” She turned her head and pressed her lips to the corner of my jaw. They were wet from her tears and it was the most beautiful kiss I’d ever had in my life. “I trust you.”

Epilogue

Lauren

The sun beatdown on us. Jordan couldn’t have planned a better day for his second annual celebrity golf tournament. He’d started it last summer and this year’s event was an even larger success. Celebrities from all avenues came, descending on Carlton that brought thousands of visitors. It was a huge boom to our economy and since school was out, when I wasn’t at the golf course with Noah, I was helping Tinley out in her store.

Last year, she said she’d made enough in one weekend to not worry about expenses for six months. This year she said she’d already made more.

I had to get to her store later, but that afternoon, Noah and I were walking toward the main stage. It was an outdoor area and the stage was raised, covered with a huge white tent to shade the performers, where Bethany Carlson, one of country’s hottest singers would soon be taking the stage for an afternoon performance. I mean, everyone was there, from actors and actresses, many personal friends to Rebecca’s husband and former actor now producer, Cooper Hawke. Jordan brought in athletes from hockey and football to baseball, and another Carlton native, Liam Allistor, a rock star in his own right, helped pack the entertainment schedule with some of the most popular performers.

It was incredible.

Walking the course that morning with Noah and Riley at my side had made the entire weekend event already more incredible than anything I’d ever experienced.

Three months ago, I gave him another chance. Every day since then, he’d fulfilled his promise not to make me regret it. Not that I could. I was going to move away because I couldn’t bear to live so close to a man I loved who I thought didn’t want me.

But Noah seemed to wake up each day, intent on loving me more than I ever thought humanly possible. It’d been three months of bliss, outside ridiculous arguments of what to eat for dinner, what movie to watch, and who would handle doing Riley’s hair.

Through the help of YouTube videos, Noah was quickly becoming better than me and he enjoyed showing off his skills.

Riley was flourishing. While she never returned to school for the year, I spent time with her in the afternoons, taking it off of her grandma’s plate and she was looking forward to returning in the fall.

There were moments of sadness, but with each passing day, more than a full year past her parents’ death, she was becoming the girl Noah said she was before. And to his credit, he’d brought Amanda and Jake back into her life. He told her stories all the time of his sister and her husband. He showed her pictures. His house was filled with family photos of the three of them together and her bedroom had a full wall devoted to framed pictures I’d helped him hang. They were of her entire life. Her birth. Amanda pregnant with her. Every birthday and Christmas and every single family photo they’d ever had taken was displayed, and every night when I helped Noah tuck her into bed, she went to that wall, kissed her lips and pressed them to the last photo taken and told her mommy and daddy she loved them and missed them.

It brought tears to my eyes every single night I witnessed it.

And as for me, I’d move in with them in July, once we had a few months back together and my house sold. Taking a second chance on him was the best decision I ever made.

I squeezed his hand as I thought of last night when all three of us had been curled into Noah’s bed as I read her one chapter of a Harry Potter book and Noah looked down at me. With sunglasses covering his eyes, I couldn’t see them, but I still knew what I’d see if he removed them.

Love.

Happiness.

“What is it?” he asked, probably surprised at the force of my squeeze.

“Nothing. I just love you.”

“Yeah?”

“Always,” I said, and I meant every word.

Next to us, Riley jumped, startling me as she clapped her hands. “Do it now, Noah! Do it now!”

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