Page 81 of Hunt for the Roses
I feel Dane pick up his head, causing me to do the same. “What?”
I gesture with my chin, tilting it upward toward the green rose pathway in the garden.
“The green rose. It means rebirth. New beginnings.”
Dane looks over his shoulder to find the green rose pathway outside the gazebo, and when he turns back around, his eyes scan back and forth between my own. I can visibly see his mind retreating to a memory and piecing something together. Something he didn’t understand at first, but he certainly does now. “That’s why you commented on my eyes,” Dane states.
“What?”
“Fourth of July,” Dane starts. “You stopped and stared into my eyes. You were enamored to realize my eyes were green, and I had no clue why.”
I lick my lips as I listen to Dane reminisce. Even though I don’t remember what he’s talking about, it feels like my own memory too because it’s something we shared together. And as I stare into his eyes now, I see the color I’ve grown to adore so much over the past year.
Hope.
Green is the color of hope.
And it’s been in front of me all along.
He’sbeen in front of me all along.
Dane’s eyes focus on my face for a few quiet moments before he speaks again. “You know the song ‘The Lady in Red’?”
I eye Dane with a deadpan expression. “I’m an old soul when it comes to music. Of course I do.”
Dane chuckles. “Okay, silly question.”
After our chuckles die down, I look at Dane questioningly because I know there had to be a specific reason he brought that up. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s the song that’s been playing in my mind this entire dance.”
I smirk as I respond. “That makes sense. I am wearing a red dress.”
“That you are,” Dane says as he trails his eyes down my body and up to my eyes again. Then he shakes his head. “But that’s not the reason I was thinking of it.”
“No?”
“No,” Dane responds as he brings a hand up, and grazes his knuckles across my cheek as his thumb touches my bottom lip. “No matter what happens between us, I’m never going to forget the way you look tonight.”
I let out the tiniest breath as his words touch my soul. He’s not referring to my physical appearance. He’s referring to this night together, and these memories we’re creating. If only we had a time capsule to bury this moment and revisit it when times get rough for us. But I don’t even think there’s a need. Because the meaning of this night is strong enough to lay in our hearts forever, and I don’t think it can ever be chipped away.
My eyes drop to Dane’s lips, and I pull his head forward so that our lips connect in a slow, deep kiss. No amount of words will ever sum up what I’m feeling, and so my actions take the driver’s seat. When I feel our lips caress each other’s, and I feel Dane hug me closer to him, I feel the invisible shackles around my wrists unlock.
Maybe they’re not completely off my wrists just yet, but tonight brought me hope.
Hope that I’ll escape my dark room.
Aria and I are holding each other’s hands as we walk up my porch steps, and when I open the front door, I allow her to go in first before I follow suit. Aria steps into the foyer and I close the door behind me. We both just stare at each other across the way, silently telling each other we’re more than ready to take this next step, but we’re also very nervous. Aria stands there so purely stunning as her wide eyes and pouty lips are begging me to make love to her, andgod do I want to.
But something plagues my mind.
I know Aria isn’t a virgin, but she hasn’t had sex in over a year, and the last person she had sex with was the man she was going to marry. Am I going to measure up? I suddenly feel an immense amount of weight and pressure on my shoulders, and it unsettles me.
I guess I’m too deep in thought right now because Aria’s voice cuts into the silence. “Dane, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to…” Aria trails off as she plays with her hands anxiously.
Just hearing her voice and looking back at her makes my head screw on straight again, and she’s the only encouragement I need. I peel myself off the front door and slowly walk toward her. I cup the side of her face with my hand, and she places her hand on top of it as she leans in to trail light kisses on my palm as she looks up to me.
My god.
