Page 34 of When Forever Stays

The world around me stops as she moves her face toward mine. I don’t dare speak. I don’t breathe. Then her lips are on the corner of my mouth. It’s a tease of what could be, but I don’t want to push her, even if it takes every ounce of restraint in my body notto pull her against me and claim her lips in a kiss that would seal her as mine. Her hands lazily run down my chest before sliding around my waist. She rests her head on my chest. She hugs me and squeezes hard. We stand like that for a few seconds before she pulls back and looks up at me.

“I’m hungry,” she says.

Laughter pours out of me, helping release the tension in the room. “Well then, let’s get you fed.”

After praying over our food and relationship, we enjoy our meal of lasagna, salad, and garlic bread.

She taps the corners of her mouth with a napkin once she’s done eating. “That was delicious. Thank you.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Would you want to go down to the beach and try to walk off some of it?”

“Sure,” she says excitedly.

“Then we can come back and enjoy some dessert.” My eyes drop to her lips, and her cheeks pinken. I smirk, loving this new dynamic between us. “I meant the cheesecake.”

Her mouth pops open, and she says, “Oh. Right. That’s what I assumed.”

We walk down to the beach, like we’ve done many times before. This time, though, I boldly take her hand.

“This is nice,” I say, looking over at her.

“It is,” she agrees. “The beach at sunset is absolutely beautiful.”

“So are you.” I lift her hand and kiss the back.

“Thank you.” Dana looks down at the sand, a shy smile on her lips.

We continue our walk in companionable silence until we decide it’s time to head back to my hut.

I plate both our slices of cheesecake, setting Dana’s piece down in front of her as she sits at my dining room table. I watch her take her first bite.

She makes a show of it, throwing her head back and sighing. “This is amazing. Cheesecake is my favorite.”

“It’s why I got it.”

Her focus snaps to me. “How did you know?”

“I remember how you eyed the other couple’s cheesecake when we were on our first date.”

She narrows her eyes. “You’re more observant than I thought.”

“There’s still a lot about me you don’t know.” As the words leave my mouth the conviction I've been ignoring hits me full-force.

“Well, I am very much looking forward to learning more,” she says.

This is the perfect opening to come clean. Over the course of the night, I almost told her a dozen times, but I didn’t. I can’t ruin this night and what has already developed. Forcing down the conviction lacing my insides, I spend the rest of the night basking in Dana’s presence and enjoying our second chance.

Before bed, I call Ashley to check in on Oscar. She answers on the second ring.

“There’s nothing new,” Ashley says without a greeting. “I tried talking to him again today, but he escaped to his room without a word.”

“You don’t need to push him.”

She sighs. “I should have tried harder to tell you about him.”

“I wasn’t exactly father-material back then. Besides, we can’t turn back time. Don’t beat yourself up.”

Ashley’s silent for a moment before answering. “You’re right. I shouldn’t keep bringing up the past. We can’t change it.”

---