Page 90 of A Follow-Through in Faking
“What are you? A fucking mind reader?” I ask with a frown, but Santi merely smiles at me before he kisses the corner of my mouth softly, gently, and oh so sweetly.
“I’m simply a man desperately in love with the woman he’s known most of his life. I can read your thoughts in the same way you can read mine,cariño, because that’s how well we know each other,” he says, sending tears straight into my eyes because a love declaration was the last thing I was expecting right here and now. “It was bad timing when I told you that you’re my favorite person, but it was true. Itistrue.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to respond as he takes a deep breath and repositions himself, clearly gathering more courage.
“Catalina, you are everything to me. You are the very reason I look forward to getting out of bed in the morning, even on the mornings when I have a hard time doing so. You are my strength, my courage, my dream, and everything else in my life that keeps me going. I love you so much that life seems brighter now when I think about it. I love you so much that the only thing I ever faked with you was the contempt I thought I held for you. It’s why I thought I was dreading it at the beginning of this, butreally, I was just terrified my feelings for you would grow and you wouldn’t feel the same way I do.”
As much as I try to fight my tears, they roll down my cheeks during the most romantic speech anyone has ever given me in my entire life. Santi is careful as he wipes them away, always so gentle with me, like I’m the most precious person in the world to him, which I’m slowly understanding that I am.
“What about your life before? All the parties and people? Aren’t you going to miss that?” I ask, my heart sinking at my words, but it’s also still beating more rapidly than ever before. His amber eyes are on mine as he answers without hesitation.
“I don’t miss it. I don’t miss any of it. I haven’t since we started this. You’ve kept my head so occupied with any and all thoughts of you, and I don’t need anything else, Cata. All I need is you,” he says, and so many of my worries finally subside, replaced by the certainty that Santiago loves me.
He loves me more than anyone has ever loved me before.
He loves me even though he’s seen all of my ugly sides.
He loves me even though I hated him for so long.
“Santiago, I—”
“We’re here,” the driver of our taxi says, interrupting me. Excitement blooms on Santi’s face, and he kisses me before handing the driver some cash and rushing over to my side to open the door for me.
My head is spinning, but I take his hand and let him pull me out of the taxi, right against his chest. My other hand is clinging to the bag we brought, but Santi doesn’t force me to say anything back to his love declaration. He simply kisses me three more times, melting against me when I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer.
“Let’s go,cariño. This is a bit time sensitive,” he says, placing one last kiss on my forehead and then pulling me toward where a small boat is waiting for us.
The sun is blaring down on us, but I welcome the heat and the scent of saltwater as I follow behind Santi. My flip flops get lost in the sand with every step, but it’s too hot to take them off, so Santi and I end up lifting our knees higher and laughing at ourselves for how funny we look doing so. That is, until I curse when my feet get burned, and he scoops me into his arms so it doesn’t happen again.
“Will you tell me what we’re doing here yet?” I ask, smiling because of how light I feel.
It’s a wonder what a healthy dose of communication can do for an overthinking mind, especially when the reassurance comes from the person you desperately need it from.
And I love Santi even more for never shying away from telling me how he feels.
As soon as we’re not in a rush anymore, I’ll allow myself to be as vulnerable as he was with me.
“Not yet. But we’ve almost made it,” he assures me, offering me another one of his smiles.
My favorite smile in the entire world.
Once we arrive where the boat is, the person there speaks to Santi in hushed voices, and I do my best to relax my face because my cheeks are burning from how much I’m grinning.
“Perfect,” is all I hear Santi say before lifting me into the boat.
Santi gracefully gets into the boat too before the short man with brown hair, hazel eyes, dark skin, and a kind smile finally starts the boat and makes our way to our location.
The wind is warm as it blows my hair around, and Santi chuckles as I try to get it back under control. He takes my hair tie from me to twist my hair into a bun at the back of my head, placing a kiss on my lips as soon as he’s done. I nuzzle against his side, the view of the ocean and the land beside us almost as wonderful as Santi’s words that continue to bounce around in my head.
Catalina, you are everything to me.
I love you so much.
All I need is you.
Over and over as I study the waves the boat makes. As I let the sun heat my skin. As I take in all of the smells around me, my favorite still being Santi’s. I inhale it with every breath, his arms firmly wrapped around me.
It’s a short boat ride, and I wish it was longer because I adore the way Santiago holds me. He holds me like he’s never held me before. He holds me like I’m the very reason he lives. He holds me like I’m exactly who he said I was.
