Page 91 of The Bright Side of Brooding
I love you. Damn, the words were right there, but this was her moment. I’d take my turn in a minute.
“I know. I know you do. You’ve shown me that, you’ve told me in a dozen ways by now, and I’ve been so scared to trust it. To trustyou. But the last few weeks, as I’ve practiced asking friends for help and trusting them to do what they said they’d do, I’ve realized how I’ve failed you. I haven’t been willing to ask you for anything because I was too scared you wouldn’t deliver. And I don’t mean that to sound like I expect to be given a bunch or—”
“I know that’s not what you mean.” I couldn’t keep the smile from my face.
Her gaze jumped to my mouth, then back to meet my eyes. My stomach dropped, and in seconds, we were wrapped in a kiss so molten, I almost melted into the couch. Her lips claimed mine, demanding and eager and hot. Her body pressed against me, one hand on my back, the other in the short hair at my nape.
She pulled back, breathless. “What I’m building up to is that I love you, Nick. And until I realized how I’d kept myself from trusting you, I didn’t see that—that so much of my weirdness about having you help or saying you missed me, was rooted in the fear that you had power over me. Because of how I felt. How I feel.”
Warmth and joy burst through me, racing through my body to the tips of my toes and fingers. “I love you. I’ve wanted to say it.”
No eloquence to be had here, not with the sheer overwhelm of elation, relief, and pleasure.
She laughed—a pure, beautiful sound. “I’m so glad. Though I’ll admit I would’ve liked it in writing so I can refer back to it.”
I chuckled along with her. “I will put many things in writing. Very soon.”
She grinned, kissed me again, then sobered. “I’ve got a lot to learn about what this looks like.”
“Me too. I’ve never done this either. But we’re doing it together. We’ll figure it out, one day, one challenge at a time.”
