I halted at his words, but I couldn’t turn around because I wasn’t sure if I was really hearing what I thought I was hearing.
“And we slept on the screened-in porch one night after I went out with Rory and Rose. You tripped at one of my job sites and ended up with a nail in your hand. I carried you to the truck. And the whole way I smelled your hair. And I thought … if I could spend the rest of my life smelling her hair, I’d die a happy man. Did you know that? Did you know how much I liked the smell of your hair and the floral scent of your skin, and whatever you put behind your ears and down your neck? Yeah, that shit drove me crazy insane.”
I couldn’t turn around. Or blink. I could barely breathe. But I could cry. And I did. So, so much.
He thought. If he thought. He knew. If he knew. He remembered … everything.
“Five years ago, I loved you and you loved me. It was really fucking messy … but we were real. It just wasn’t the right time. Our timing seems to always suck. And I’m sorry about that. But you’re here. And I’m here. And my best friend from high school is in town for the next two weeks, and you should come play pool with us.”
I turned a degree every second, like a ticking clock, until I faced him—that gleam in his eyes.
“I love you today.” He shrugged a shoulder. “And I’m going to wake up and do the same thing tomorrow.”
I had so many questions. Did he have sex with Angie in Costa Rica? That was my biggest question, or so I thought. But as I inched my feet in his direction, I realized it didn’t matter. If I wanted to cross that threshold back into his life, it couldn’t matter. If I accepted his love and gave it freely back in return, there were Biblical rules about love I’d have to follow.
It was never jealous or demanded its own way.
It wasn’t irritable.
It didn’t keep record of being wronged.
Love never gave up.
Never lost faith.
Love was always hopeful.
And it endured through every circumstance.
However, before I could take that final step back to him, there was a question he had to answer.
“Were you ever going to come for me?”
Fisher smiled that glorious, unmatchable grin, and it instantly sent a new round of burning tears to my eyes. It blew my heart up like a balloon, and it rattled my stomach, sending those familiar, tiny wings aflutter. “I was thinking about it.”
“I found my lost fisherman,” I whispered as I took that final step and wrapped my arms around him, our lips reuniting after too long apart.
When we pulled back an inch and gazed at each other, he grinned again. “I told you, all you needed to do was go knock on his door.” He wiped his thumbs along my cheeks. “Don’t cry. I don’t want Shane to think I made my girl sad.”
“You remember.”
He grinned. “I remember. I just had no idea the memories of us would be so … NSFW. And when it happened, when I remembered the feeling, it felt indescribable, in some way like the universe was laughing at me. How could I have not known? Not like my brain forming the memory, more like my soul tapping on my heart and saying, ‘Yo, dumb ass, remember her? We love her. ‘We will always love her.’”
I rested my forehead against his chest and laughed. “Not safe for work …”
“No joke.” He took my hand and led me back toward his house. “You know, I can’t play pool anymore without getting an erection. Do you have any idea how awkward that is when you’re playing against a dude?”
I giggled.
When we reached the basement, Fisher released my hand and grabbed a beer. “Shane, this is Reese. Sorry we disappeared. She’s a little skittish.”