Page 170 of Paint the Town, Dove
“Lay it on the line, break if you have to but don’t break me.” I grabbed both her hands. “I know you have no idea what the fuckto do, I don’t either. I know we work for each other, figuratively and literally – ”
She laughed. I kissed her fingers.
“This is so fucked up. But this is us. An explosion. An impossible fucking feat. So tell me, please just tell me,” I said, “if there’s a chance to repair my heart.”
She blinked, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. Slowly, she knelt down in front of me, grabbed my face in both hands and said, “You make things quiet.”
I couldn’t hold back a laugh, a strangled sob caught in my throat at the sight of her. “Well maybe that’s what our story’s about, Dove. Finding normalcy in chaos.”
“Ryden…”
“Let me love you,fuck,” I cupped the back of her neck. “If it’s not you it’s no one, so let me love you.”
Stealing the breath from my lungs, she pressed her lips to mine and sucked out all the pain, the anger, the regret and guilt and shame –
She threw it in the fire.
Herfire.
And it burned oh so sweet, like lava cascading over decaying soil.
She cleansed and mended and healed.
With her, things would still. Like wind frozen in time, she was the movement, the edge – the fury.
We were fucked up.
We were terrified.
But we were strong.
Together, my Dove and I were impenetrable.
It took me a while to realize that, the lengths I’d gone to isolate myself, the current she swam through to avoid companionship.
We found it in each other. Fuck us for figuring it out so late in life.
But we weren’t dying. We were living.
Now, as I kissed my beautiful Dove, I knew the feeling of freedom.
It’s always been there, around us, invisible. Slowly circling like an –
I smiled against her lips, drew her closer.
Like an eagle.
The door broke free and so did we as Tav, Mal, Morty and uh… Paisley and what’s-his-fuck burst in.
“Oh hell,” Tav turned around, whipping a hand over his eyes. “Make up not make out, fuck, Mallory –”
“What didIdo?” She questioned, busying herself on her phone.
Morty nodded in my direction. Just like Dean when I asked him about Polly over the holidays.
“She’s good for you,” I’d said.
“Better than most,” he replied. “So is Scarlett.”
