“This isn’t what I wanted to show you,” I stated, grabbing her hand.
I led her to the guesthouse I had built specially for her after I read her book. She peered around the spacious open room that I’d made into her office. It was a private writing space with huge bay windows that overlooked our dock and the water. She took in every last picture of all our happy memories throughout the years that were scattered all over the walls. She walked over to the reading chair in the corner and picked up her memory blanket that I’d given to her for her birthday a long time ago. She left it behind. I had it with me always. She brought it up to her cheek, snuggling into it as her eyes began to water. Placing it back on the chair, she continued over to the bookshelf that held all of her books that she’d also left behind. I pulled every last one of them out of storage.
“I made Lucas’ company build this room for you after I read your book. I wanted you to have a happy place at my home,” I informed, gazing at her as she continued to explore the room with her hand over her heart.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what I really wanted her to see. I came up behind her, close enough to where she could feel my warmth, love, and devotion for her.
“See, baby, you’ve always been with me. Even when you weren’t,” I murmured into her ear as she stared at the Twilight Sparkle Briggs doll sitting on the shelf with a picture of us beside it.
Her hand went over her mouth as fresh tears erupted.
“I bought her on my way to rehab. I never needed you more than I did back then. I prayed that she could make me as happy as it made you the last time you were holding her. Hoping that maybe one day you could hold her again, knowing that this time she was yours. And you were going to be happy, forever. With me.”
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
I turned her to face me, and there were tears streaming down her beautiful face. I resisted the urge to kiss them all away, so I wiped them away instead. She looked deep into my eyes, searching for something I hope she’d find.
“Okay,” she whispered.
I pulled away her hair, caressing her cheek with my thumb.
“Okay, what, baby?”
“Okay, we can try to be friends again.”
I smiled, pulling her into my arms. Feeling her against me for the first time in over three years was like coming home. She wrapped her arms around me, holding me in the exact same way. My girl was in my arms again. Where she belonged. I would prove myself worthy of her love and trust. I didn’t care if it took the rest of my life.
She was mine.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that I was ever going to let her go. I loved her too fucking much.
Epilogue
<>Austin<>
Four and a half years later
“You ready?” I asked my baby girl.
She stopped building her sand castle and looked up at me. She got her long, silky brown hair from her mama and the freckles sprinkled across her nose from me, but those bright blue eyes she shared with both of us. She fervently nodded, standing up, brushing off the sand from her chubby little legs and her purple two-piece bikini that Briggs insisted was the cutest thing she’d ever seen.
“Hold on, Amari,” Briggs said to our almost three-year-old daughter.
She walked over to us from her beach chair and helped Amari wipe off the sand.
“Turn around, baby girl,” she said, wanting to tie Amari’s long hair up high on her head so it would be away from her face.
Briggs strapped on her life vest and I made sure it was securely in place, tight against her chest. Amari ran over and kissed her eight-month-old baby brother, Michael. We named them after Briggs’ parents, and I was already trying to knock her up with a third. To give her the big family that she always dreamed of.
It took a little less than a year for her to tell me that she loved me again, even though I told her every fucking day. We started off as friends like we did when we first met, flirting relentlessly, cuddling, and laughing all the time. She slept in my arms every night like old times. The first time we kissed was on my birthday, exactly what I wished for when I blew out my candles. We had been together for three months by that time, but it felt like we’d never parted ways. It was as if nothing had changed between us.
The first time I tasted her again, bringing her to ecstasy with my tongue and fingers, was on her birthday. It was three months after mine. That was my gift to her. The best fucking orgasm she’d ever experienced. She wanted to make love right then and there, she actually begged me for it. It took everything inside me not to give her what she wanted. I told her she couldn’t get my cock again until she told me she loved me.
Sound familiar?