Page 57 of Love, Morgan

I cleared my throat. “I’m, um, glad you were. You’re… an excellent kisser.”

I wanted to kick myself for being so awkward, but I couldn’t seem to find another setting.

“I’m glad you think so,” she said, and I felt her cheek burning against my own. “I’ve not had an awful lot of practice.”

“Oh.”

She winced, stepping back and refusing to look at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I mean, I guess I did, but I didn’t.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I said quickly, reaching towards her. “I’ve not had any practice at all. So. Yeah. You’re good.”

She finally looked at me, and my brain realized as she did, that this conversation could have gone badly with someone else. The way she was looking at me, though, didn’t worry me at all.

“Yeah?” she asked, a small smile playing around her mouth.

“Yes,” I replied firmly, refusing to be embarrassed. I wasn’t embarrassed. I’d been busy and uninterested. It wasn’t that big of a deal. “I just never wanted to.”

“Until me,” she said, looking entirely mystified by the concept.

I breathed a laugh. “Until you.”

She really had no idea how special she was. The sun was showing the first signs of setting and it bounced in reddening waves off her like the whole universe knew how special she was and was conspiring to show me that, to show the world that. Almost everyone I’d ever met deserved so much more than they seemed to believe for themselves, and Iona was on a whole other level. She deserved the very best of everything she ever wanted.

She stepped back towards me. “Thank you.” Her voice was soft, but it burned so sincerely that the light around her could have been embers lit by her sentiments.

I wasn’t sure where I’d gotten this sudden interest in the poetic from. I’d read a decent amount of poetry, but I’d never thought like that. Until her. Of course.

Returning to Jackson Point was going to be more difficult than it had ever been.

I nodded. “Thank you, too. For… all of it.”

Her fingers brushed lightly against my face, moving my hair. She smiled like she’d won something better than the lottery. “You look like a goddess with the sun behind you like this.”

I laughed. “You look like a goddess with the sun in front of you like this.”

She giggled, looking down before she chewed her bottom lip—a lip I now knew. A lip I’d never for a moment forget.

I felt drunk—drunk on her, on our kiss, on this moment, on the light, and the look in her eyes. When something inside you finally got unlocked, it truly took no prisoners, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I only got her for a few days, and there would never be anyone else like her, but at least I’d know I’d lived this, loved this, and didn’t turn the chance down when something in me finally fell.

“Morgan?” she whispered, and the sound of it made my stomach flutter.

“Yes?” I asked, more breathless than I should have been.

“What do we do now?”

“I wish I knew.” I shook my head. “I’m leaving soon, you’re leaving soon, and life…”

She nodded, not wanting to say it either. To say it made it real, and, suddenly, anything real was annoying. If it wasn’t her, I didn’t want it. Of course, I did—I loved my life—but here, with her in my arms, real life suddenly seemed so cruel and empty.

“It’s going to hurt like hell,” she said, laughing in the most painful way I’d ever heard.

“I’m stronger than hell.”

She looked at me, holding my gaze, and my stomach swooped like I’d missed a step. “You are.”

Something in her tone told me she wasn’t sure she was, though.

I took her face gently but firmly in my hands. “And so are you. No matter how much it hurts, I’m not sorry we did this. I’ve never… I don’t ever… I mean, you know…” I took a frustrated breath. “I’m glad it was you. I’m glad we met. I’m glad Thalia sent me that ridiculous mango. I’m glad it was you.”

---