Page 191 of Legacy

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Not rejection.

Yes.

If we keepgoing.

If I wait.

If I let her open to me the right way.

Dio, help me, I’d wait a lifetime if that’s what it took.

I nod once.

No argument. No grand speeches.

Just quiet agreement.

I pull the velvet box back toward myself and pocket it.

Not because I yield.

But because when I give it to her again, it’ll be right.

It’ll be hers.

And she’ll be mine.

***

I always wake early, but today I’ve been up for hours just watching her.

In my bed again.

Adriana.

Curled up beside me.

Wearing my shirtagain.

Gorgeous.

It’s loose on her, hanging off one bare shoulder, brushing her thighs where the hem rides up.

And maybe she didn’t mean it to, but it means something to me.

It’s not armor.

It’s not distance.

It’s her, wrapped in me, even if she has some walls still up.

I don’t know why she keeps pretending she wants to sleep on the damn couch when every night she finds her way back here anyway.

Part of me wants to wake her up just to ask her.

Part of me wants to kiss the answer out of her.

But I don’t.

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