Page 552 of The Tempted

I watched as she cocked her head to the side, dropped her hand and smiled slightly.

“And that maybe you’d smile again,” she added. “And if I was granted three wishes the third would be that I was the one to make you smile.”

Then she winked at me and a single tear fell from the corner of her eye.

It was that image of her that would stick with me.

The one I remembered when I drew my final breath.

A plea from her to me.

To live.

To smile.

She made me want to.

“I’m going to go,” she said, wiping away the tear with the back of her hand. “Give you some privacy but I’ll see you at my dad’s.”

I nodded because speaking wasn’t an option. If I opened my mouth, I wouldn’t recognize my voice and the words I would say would bind me to a heaven I wasn’t sure I deserved but one I wanted to live in.

I wrapped my arm around her waist and stepped toward her, bending my head to cover her mouth with mine. A gentle kiss that did what I thought only my words could do…a kiss that took me to heaven.

---