Just Friends(86)

He just grins at me in answer, and I laugh a disbelieving laugh.

“Kissing instead of talking is probably more realistic in real life,” I say, side-eyeing him.

“Trust me. I know,” he replies, with a blinding, heart-clenching, freckle-emphasizing smile.

“But in romance novels it’s nice when they tie everything together.”

“Okay, then. You’re the writer. Show me how it’s done.”

I bite the inside of my cheek in thought. “Oh. Here’s a good example. Like in your letter to me, there was a line you wrote at the end. Do you remember it?”

His mouth parts, closes. “Say it for me.”

I puff out a breathless chuckle. “It was something like, I miss you, Little Bird. If you can find it within yourself to forgive me, fly back to me.”

“And you did.” His eyes soften.

“And I did.”

I see relief flood Declan’s face and my heart keens. We both forget to think about my romance book’s ending because ours is just beginning. And I’m here to stay, I will my face to say. But I think he knows. He pulls me down and wraps his arms around me, tight like he’s imagining when he didn’t have me. And to think, grief and pride almost kept us apart. The pride of having to grieve especially. He moves the hair that’s fallen over my forehead and places a gentle kiss there. And finally, I don’t think. I just feel the steady beating of his heart beneath his chest.

Being his feels like coming home.





Six Months Later


Declan!” I shout from my cottage’s living room. He comes sprinting in from the garden, face sweaty and gloves dirty from building the deck out there. “Look at this.” I point at my mom’s first Facebook post in thirteen years. It’s a photo of her in a red minidress holding a bright orange drink on a white sand beach. Sunset colors paint the sky behind the massive smile parting her face.

It reads:

You are looking at a retired woman! Woohoo!

And look at my baby! She wrote her first book! That’s right! My baby wrote a book!

LINK TO BUY MY BABY’S BOOK!

GO BUY THAT SUCKER SO I CAN KEEP BEING RETIRED!

Text or call me, because like I said, I’M A RETIRED WOMAN! WOOHOO!



“Oh my gosh,” he laughs while absentmindedly rubbing my shoulders. “Does that link even work?”

“I have no idea, but I am not gonna check. It’s the sentiment that counts.”

Managing all the convenience stores quickly switched to trying to sell them. So, with Declan and his father’s connections, we sold them to a sweet Korean family from San Francisco who moved down to Seabrook to run them. I still maintain a part-time consulting position, and in my free time, I shop my currently self-published book around to literary agents.

“Are you ready for our date tonight?” Declan asks from above me.

“Six thirty. Secret Beach. Wear a dress. I know!” I say, repeating his instructions back to him.

He nods and then gives me a quick kiss on the cheek before putting his protective gloves back on.



* * *



“Okay, you can open your eyes now!” Declan unclasps his hands from my face.

We’re standing in the middle of Secret Beach, our favorite spot: feet in the sand with a perfect view of the horizon, the ginormous rocky cliff hugging us from behind. Everything about our secret place is the same, except this time, there’s a path lined by massive candles. It leads to a wreath of blue and white hydrangeas, with one red rose at the top. Lottie’s favorite flower.

“Declan,” I gasp, grabbing his shoulder. “What is this?”

He finally looks me in the eye, a hesitant smile tugging his lips. The freckle on his bottom lip spurs into action at the movement.

“Come on,” he breathes, voice so low I can barely hear it over the crash of the waves.

He leads me by the hand through the narrow, candle-lit path to the head of the flower display and turns to face me.

“Oh my goodness,” I cry. “What is happening!”

Declan smiles. Okay, I think I know what’s happening.

“Blair,” Declan says, reaching for my hands. “I’ve known since the day I met you that my greatest joy in life would be asking you to spend the rest of our days together. That was seventeen years ago, and I still feel just as excited to bend down on one knee today as I imagined I would then. Loving you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done. It’s so easy that everything else feels arduous in comparison. Yes, arduous. I had to throw a big word in because I know you love those. And I’ll keep learning big words to impress you for the rest of our lives.”

I hear myself release a tearful laugh. As Declan’s determined eyes bore into mine, the wind and waves dim to a distant whirr. There is nothing else in the world but him right now.

“You have changed my life in too many ways to count. Even when I wasn’t physically near you all those years, every day, your presence was like a visceral grip around my heart, refusing to let go. And I won’t ever let it.” His hair whips across his forehead from the wind as he crouches down and reaches for something behind the wreath of flowers. I’m expecting to see a small box, but the pastel birdhouse he made me comes into view instead. I gasp, clutching my mouth. And then he procures a small mallet.