Page 132 of The Fate Of Us

I found the strength to meet her eyes, twisting my head and holding her stare. I don’tknow how long we stayed like that, exploring what we already knew lived in each other’s eyes, but by the time I finally blinked, the sky had shifted from deep blue to a soft lilac, the sun starting its descent into the ocean, and the sporadic constellations waking up for their day.

Both our gazes shifted ahead, watching the waves roll in from miles away.

“Do you think any of this even matters?” Addy’s voice broke through my thoughtsas I tilted my head to face her.

“What do you mean?”

Her shoulders lifted slightly as she gestured between us. “This. Us. Our jobs. Ourlives…” She looked up at me again. “Is the world even going to remember what we brought to it? Like…” Her gaze fell onto the horizon again. “What if the world is a worse place when I’m writing, and such a brighter thing when I act… when I’m doing what other people tell me to do?”

I kept my eyes on her as I said, “I don’t think it matters what you choose to bring to theworld, Addy; it’s going to remember so much more than that.” I felt her attention on me. “And even then, does it matter what the world remembers? What about the people who know you? The real you.”

My eyes fell onto the line where the sky and sea became one, smiling at the words that were about to fall from my mouth. “Florence would remember the sister she thought she’d never be lucky enough to find. Jacob would remember the way you two would laugh for hours on end about nothing at all. Goldie would remember the guiding light she had with you, and how blessed she was to have you.”

The glint from the tears that veiled her eyes made my heart sink, but I guessed that theywere happy tears that were about to fall from her lash line, thanks to the hint of a smile I could see ghosting her lips.

I caught one of those tears with my thumb as I continued. “When I think of you, Addy, Ithink about how big your heart is. I think about how the world would be a boring, meaningless place without you, regardless of what you choose to do. Books or acting, it’d be duller either way.

“I’d remember how my heart would beat slower, calmer, whenever you took a step closertowards me. I’d remember how my head would clear and my hands would stop shaking when I stopped and stared at you.”

Her tears were washing over her cheeks like the waves were on our feet—constant andheavy, full of power—too many for me to catch, but I wiped away what I could. “I’d remember how amazing it felt to be loved by you. I’d think, Oh my God, what the hell did a guy like me do to deserve to be loved by that girl? What did I do right to get a chance to exist in the same moment as her? That surely fate wouldn’t; it couldn’t be that kind.”

The sparks in her eyes flickered as I brushed another tear and whispered, "I don't want to imagine what my life would have looked like if you hadn't hit me with that water balloon." A laugh stumbled out of me, triggering one from her, and I loved how it sounded likehome.

“Being loved by you was the best thing that ever happened to me—”

“Love.”

My head pulled back slightly, scanning her face and reading every emotion that waswritten on her face. Her eyes were light and happy, the tears no longer slipping. Her smile was there, present and glowing. Her cheeks were pink and pearly, like the inside of a conch shell. Her hair was wild, and windswept, and all the embers that floated from a campfire in the dead of night combined into one.

And then my eyes fell to her lips as she whispered, “Iloveyou, Nate.” Her hands foundmine, gripping them idly as the salt spray washed over them. “There’s nothing past tense about how much I love you.”

Craning, my neck pulled back as I shook my head. “But I… I—”

“Made a mistake.” My mouth gaped. “But does that one mistake take away fromeverything good you’ve done for me, for us? It doesn’t take away from how I know that the boy I hit with a water balloon that day is still in there.” One of her hands finds its way to my chest, covering my heart. “I know that the boy who told me, in this very spot, that he loved me, is still there.”

Her face falls forward, giving me a moment to take in the words she was saying. I’m sureI could have years to absorb them, and a part of me would always doubt that she’d said these things. But before I knew it, her eyes were looking at me again, as her hand slipped up my neck and cupped my jaw.

“We both messed up… in one way or another. But does that mean we should tormentourselves with whatcouldhappen if we decide to let the past remain in the past? Because I don’t think I can wait another second, let alone another seven years to find out what we could be. What we’ve always known we could be, Nate."

She took a breath, as the golden sunlight lit up her face. “I don’t want to stay away fromyou anymore. I don’t want to forget how much I love you.”

I mirrored how she was holding me, my hand skating under her chin, my thumb brushingover her skin, calming her in the way she did so naturally with me.

I let my head dip, a smile that I never wanted to hide from her again beaming on my face,before wandering to her eyes. “You know… when we were apart, I always used to think about how we could be onseparate corners of the earth, live completely different lives and yet, we’d still belong to each other. My heart would always be yours to break and hold and do whatever you wished. It has been yours, for longer than either of us could probably imagine.”

We were written in the stars before the constellations were even charted. I’d alwaysknown that. There was a cosmic string, made of starlight, that had tied us together before either of us could imagine. It was too complex to understand, too ancient and magical for our tiny brains to comprehend. But I didn’t mind. I didn’t care if I never knew why we were meant to be… so long as we were.

I hadn’t realised how close our faces had gotten in the moments since I spoke, my nosebrushed down the bridge of hers, dipping our heads. Our lips were almost touching, a breath away from a kiss. My hand curved round to the base of her neck, tilting her head toward the sky and faint dusting of stars that were watching us.

“What do you say, Firefly… shall we start over?” I ask, delighting in the amusement nowglazing her eyes, and how I felt her smile on my lips.

She nodded lightly. “Yes.” Her eyes squeezed shut, then sprung open with a laugh. “Hi,I’m Adaline.”

My laugh had me pulling my head back, before falling in front of her again. “Hello,Adaline… I’m Nate… and I think I’m in love with you.”

Her thumb skated across my cheek as she whispered onto my lips, “I’m in love withyou… what should we do about that?”

“Never forget it.” I pressed a kiss, light and timeless, onto her lips. “Ever.”

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