Luke’s mouth was hanging open. He was wearing his dress blues, looking handsome and distinguished and unapologetically happy. Jake was covering his face, trying not to laugh. Luke’s dad was looking at me like I was a crazy woman.
Fuck ’em.
I approached Luke. He was still smiling. That was a good sign. I could hear Jake and his wife muttering to each other.
“Hi,” I said, stuffing my hands firmly in my pockets.
“Hi,” he said.
Well, this was it, the fuck it moment. I motioned to a corner of the yard. Luke met me near a patch of bushes.
“I’m sorry I missed the ceremony,” I started. “I just needed to come anyway. Because after we talked, I thought a lot.”
“Yeah, me, too,” he said.
My heart lifted. “Really?”
“Really.” He swallowed. “But go ahead.”
I pressed tighter into my pockets. Holding myself together. I stared at the grass below my feet. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to, you know, be involved after everything that’s happened. But I need you to know that—” It felt wrong to say this to the ground. I looked up at him. “I love you.”
His eyebrows raised, those long lashes blinking in surprise over the blue-gray eyes. He wasn’t responding. That’s okay. At least I said it. And yet.
“And I don’t mean it in a shallow way, you know, like, in love, like what someone would say in a Disney movie, or what teenagers say to each other so they can have sex.”
He laughed.
“I mean it without a doubt, like the old people who hold hands on the street. I care for you, I will always care for you, I love you, and I will wait for you, if that’s what we need to do.”
“Cassie, I—” he began, taking a deep breath, and looking past me.
Just say something. I looked back down at the lawn. My old friend, the lawn.
“I love you, too.”
My eyes snapped upward.
He reached out his hands, hesitant, and put them on my shoulders. “I love you.”
“Really?” My heart expanded, flooded with light.
“Really.”
We moved together at the same time. I wrapped my arms around his neck, meeting his open mouth with mine, pushing into his lips with a sure kiss, a relieved kiss, a kiss with his still hands on my ribs, his fingertips sliding around to my back, mine brushing his chest, exploring in a way we had never gotten a chance to before.
“So no matter how the hearing goes, we’re going to do this?” he asked when we let go.
“No matter how it goes,” I said. “And we’re going to win. Well, we’re going to fight it hard, anyway.”
“Damn right, we are,” he said, wrapping an arm around me, pressing, holding.
I looked over at his family, and gave a feeble wave. Jake and Jacob senior turned away, pretending to fiddle with the grill. Hailey hid a smile behind a cough, and JJ stared unabashedly, a toy car dangling from his hand, forgotten.
I turned back to Luke, and looked at the time. It was five. We were going on at nine. “Shit.” I smiled at him. “I gotta go play a show.”
“Okay.”
We headed side by side toward the driveway, skipping every other step, making good time. He took my hand as we walked. My eyes pricked hot, wet.
“Cassie,” Luke said suddenly.
“Yeah?” I said through my tears.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do, or how this will work, but I love you,” he said. I let go of his hand, and got into the car. He added through the window, “And then we’ll go from there.”
I nodded at him, unable to speak. As I backed out of the driveway, Luke waved. I waved back.
Luke was right; we didn’t know what we’d do. We knew we were no longer the worst things everyone once thought of us. We weren’t criminals or addicts or liars or cheats, but what came after, we didn’t know. But maybe we didn’t have to know. We’d love each other, first and foremost, and then we’d go from there.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Lanie Davis, Annie Stone, and the entire team at Alloy Entertainment. Thank you to Emma Colón for her time and her sharp eyes on the outline. Thank you to Aimee, Ondrea Stachel, and Kim Ross for sharing their experience with diabetes. And finally, big thanks to Kyle Jarrow for the inspiration, and to Emily Bestler for putting Purple Hearts out into the world.
About the Author
TESS WAKEFIELD works in Golden Valley, Minnesota, as a copywriter, an amateur comedian, and a caretaker for several thriving plants. Purple Hearts is her first novel for adults.