Page 79 of Yours, Now and Always
The flames are dancing. Like, actually dancing. I watch one for probably too long, mesmerized by the way it moves, and wonder,is fire alive? That feels like something I should know. But right now, I genuinely can’t remember.
Rose petals are scattered everywhere. Across the wood, between the candles, drifting over the edges onto the grass. Blush and cream and the palest pink, as if someone took a sunset and just spilled it for me.
I crouch down, carefully, because this dress cost more than my piano— Wait. Did it? I think it did. Shit, I can’t remember right now. I’ll have to circle back to that because I’m more interested in the petals for now.
I touch one. It’s soft. So soft. “You’re doing great,” I whisper to it. Then I realize I’m talking to a rose petal and stand up quickly, hoping no one saw that.
And theflowers.
Holy shit, the flowers.
The forest looks like it bloomed just for this.
Arches made of dark, weathered branches curve overhead. Not perfectly spaced, but wild and deliberate. They’re wovenwith deep burgundy roses, trailing greenery, and pale pink peonies that haveabsolutely no businessbeing alive in November.
I stare at one of the peonies. “How are you even here?” I ask it out loud. “November is not your month. Imported, probably. Gage would do that. He’d resurrect a flower if it reminded him of something I said once.”
God, I’m having another conversation with a flower.
I need to get my life together.
But everything is impossibly, devastatingly beautiful. And all I can think iswhen did he do this?Howdid he do this?
My throat tightens. My eyes flood. BecauseGage did this.
This path.
This moment.
This memory I’m going to carry in my heart for the rest of my life.
“Oh my god,” I whisper, and my voice cracks on the words. “Oh mygod.”
The tears are coming now. Fast. Unstoppable.
I press both hands to my face, trying to hold it together, but it’s useless. I’m fully crying and I haven’t even moved yet.
“I’m crying because I love him,” I announce to absolutely no one. “Not because I’m high. This is love crying. There’s a difference.” I wipe my eyes. “Though I am still high. But that’s separate.”
Tim is going to be so mad that I’m crying off his geometry. I don’t care. Because this...thisis everything.
I take a shaky breath and step onto the wooden walkway. The planks are solid under my feet. Secure. Which, of course they are. Gage would never let me walk on something that wasn’t.
The candlelight dances and the rose petals flutter as I walk along the path. And even though the air is crisp, I’m not cold. Hidden heaters tucked along the path cast just enough warmthto reach me. Gage thought of everything. I’ll never be cold in a world he’s built for me.
I pause mid-step because that thought hits me again, differently. “He built this world for me,” I whisper. My eyes well again. “He literally built a temperature-controlled path.” I’m definitely crying again.
Every step I take, I fall harder for the man waiting for me.
And then, I can see him.
At the end of the path, the trees open up, and...I stop breathing. There’s a glass structure nestled at the end. Temporary and magical. Like someone bottled starlight and built a glass greenhouse to trap it.
I stop and just stare. “Is this real?” I whisper.
I blink. Look again. It’s still there.
“Okay. Real. This is a real glass building.”
