Page 102 of Ms Perfectly Fine
“To our house,” he said, placing the key in her hand, and her chest tightened.
“You want to keep living together?”
“If you’ll have me,” Elijah said, and Brinkley barked. “Us,” he added.
Happy tears prickled Autumn’s eyes.
“Please don’t cry! This is meant to be a good thing.” He wiped a tear from her cheek.
Autumn gripped the keychain in her hand, not wanting him to misunderstand. “These are happy tears. I thought now that everything was settled with your company and with Tim, you would move out,” she explained. Her fears seemed silly now, but she’d known that just because she was willing to stay didn’t mean he was. Everything had moved so fast between them; she would have understood if he’d wanted to slow down.
“I’ve told you, there’s no getting rid of me. I’m giving you this because I want to move forward. Since we’ve already lived together, anything less and we would be going backwards. The house is ours. Both our names are on the deed.”
“It’s really ours?” she asked in wonder, closing the gap between them.
“Tim signed over the deed. We’re stuck with each other.”
His smile was so infectious she reached up on her tiptoes and kissed him, not caring if the neighbours saw.
“I love you too much to ever be separated from you, but I need you to know that I’ll never ask you to pick between your music and me,” he added, but all she heard was love. The last time they’d uttered the words was after the showcase, when they had both been so exhausted and flooded with emotion that it almost hadn’t felt real. Hearing them now, in the warm light of day, felt all the more special because it wasn’t said in response to the fear of one losing the other. He would never question her music; she hoped she could be there for him as he built Kyloware into the vision he’d dreamt of.
“You love me?” she asked, tugging at his grey jumper to pull him in closer. She had spent so much time wanting him to leave and now she was never going to allow him to escape.
“With every fibre of my being,” he breathed, picking a fallen cherry blossom from her hair. He snuggled her close, and she could hear his heart pounding.
“I love you too,” she sighed quietly against his chest. She pulled back, letting herself breathe, and she could see the longing in his eyes. He looked at her as though the world didn’t exist around them.
“What was that? I couldn’t hear,” he drawled. Her cheeks flushed pink as he kissed her forehead, her cheek, and then her lips.
“I love you,” she repeated against his lips.
He showered her in kisses until she melted into his arms.
“We should go home before we gross out the neighbours,” Elijah said when they breathlessly broke away from each other.
“Yours or mine?” Autumn teased, looking up at him.
With a tight squeeze, he kissed the side of her head and led her up the steps to the front door. “Ours.”
