Page 66 of Perfect Tragedy
“I love you,” he says.
Three. Simple. Words.
Three little words that mean everything.
How my heart has wanted to hear those words.
I open my mouth to respond in kind, but he places a finger over my lips. “There are so many things I love about you. How you love with your whole heart. Your captivating, sweet and at times, flirtatious smile. How proud you are of your family, your love for animals, your loyalty and kindness. The freckle right here,” he says brushing the top of my lip and repeating words I said to him, “and the reminder of the fall you took here,” he says brushing the other side of mouth and it makes me remember the time he almost kissed me years ago.
“The way you bite your lip when you’re nervous; how you slightly scrunch up your nose and murmur “mmm” when you really enjoy something you’re eating; how smart and yet, how practical you are; how extremely beautiful. Being lovedby youis a privilege.”
“You don’t know who you belong to?” He asks referring to how I ended one of my emails. “I’ll tell you. You belong to me. Now. And always.”
“You mean it?” I ask, afraid to hope.
He laughs, “I may not have claimed you before, out loud, but in my heart, that’s always been the case. I couldn’t wait one more minute to tell you - to show you. There’s no doubt that I mean it, that I’m sure.”
He smiles softly, looks at my mouth, then puts his mouth on mine. His lips are soft, the kiss firm and exploring. He pulls on my hair gently and my head naturally follows backward, deepening our kiss. With a newfound confidence, I pull away from him and take his hand and lead him without a word to my bedroom.
We undress each other. He stiffens slightly as I remove his jeans, demonstrating what I interpret as a momentary concern about his leg prosthesis. I take the hand that he placed on his jeans to stop me and softly kiss it holding his gaze with my own. I trust that my response and look convey the pride knowing what he endured for his beliefs and moreover, for what he’s overcome to still be here. I show him with my words, my lips, my hands and with my body how much I love him. How there is nothing about him that isn’t beautiful, whole, or desirable. I tell him and let him show me that he’s more than enough man for me as we become one.
After we finish, laying face to face, his fingers trail up and down my back lazily. My eyes are so heavy, but I don’t want to fall asleep. I’m afraid to. I don’t want to wake up and find out this has all been just a sweet dream.
“I forgot one thing,” he whispers.
“Mhm?” I can’t form words.
“Remember those places you told me years ago you want to go? I want to take you there. To each of them.”
Smiling, I respond with a demand, “Tell me again.”
“I love you,” he says knowing what I want.
“I’ll never tire of hearing it,” I smile, eyes finally falling closed, happy, content, confident in our love.
He places a kiss to my lips, “I’ll never stop saying it.”
Epilogue
“How much further?” I ask with a smile in my voice.
“We’re almost there,” Blake responds, the tone of his voice laced with mischief.
When I got home from work tonight, he waited for me to change and then told me he wanted to take me somewhere. It’s a surprise. I was all for it, excited and curious. Then he made me put a blindfold on.
The suspense is killing me.
The last several months have been a whirlwind. I helped Blake and Mandy clean and do minor repairs on their childhood house that has stood empty since Virginia’s death to prepare it for being sold. I thought it would be hard for them to part with it, but Blake said that it didn’t have many great memories and that he had spent more time at my home than his own and that he was actually quite relieved to finalize the transaction.
Blake also made it clear in no uncertain terms that he would be leaving his home in California and returning to Mason Creek. I challenged his decision since I knew he loved his job, and was highly confident I could find work at a dental office there. We discussed it several times and my willingness to do so was genuine; frankly, I was willing to be anywhere as long as we were together. But he wouldn’t hear of it saying my dad was in Mason Creek, that all of his best memories are here, and then, reminding me – as if that was necessary - that we fell in love here. How could I argue?
His hand is in mine and his thumb continually brushes across the top of my hand. The transitions have been going astoundingly well. Things between us have been a dream. We are more than making up for lost time - we can’t get enough of each other. Loving him is a dream, so much so that sometimes I’m still afraid I’m going to wake up and find out all of this didn’t happen. I’ve woken up in a cold sweat a couple times after having nightmares about just that. Each time, Blake has held and soothed me with words of love until I calmed down.
The car stops and I turn my head toward him and he laughs softly.
“What’s funny?”
“You look adorable.”
