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They chat for a few minutes longer, then Rohan says he’s going to have a quick nap before the flight lands. Karen and Savannah have both gone quiet as well, so I assume they’re asleep. I open my eyes, only to see Ty looking over at me, a smile on his face.
“Did you catch all that?” he asks.
“What? I was sleeping,” I tell him.
“Liar,” he says. “You were awake that whole time.”
“Okay, maybe, but I was trying not to listen, I swear.” Giving him a little grin, I say, “That was really sweet, what you said about Richard.”
Ty chuckles and shakes his head at me.
“What? It’s an occupational hazard.” We stare at each other for a second, both of us knowing this is the end. Nope. Don’t want to think about that. “Are you excited to be on your way home?” I already know the answer, but some part of me wants him to say no, that he doesn’t want to leave because it’ll mean we won’t be together anymore and he doesn’t know if he can stand that.
“Yeah, it’ll be good for Michael, and for the company.”
“That’s not what I asked,” I say, pursing my lips.
“There will be things I’m going to miss about Peru,” he says, resting his hand on mine. “A lot.”
He gives my hand a little squeeze and it warms me from my toes to the top of my head. “What about you?”
“Same.” I chew on my lip for a second to stop myself from leaning over and planting a huge kiss on his mouth. “This has been crazy, hasn’t it?”
“Yes.” He grins. “Strangest five days of my life.”
“Agreed. I actually think Dr. Napper was right though. I definitely did grow and learned a lot about myself.”
He nods. “Yeah, who knew you were so good at making paella?”
I laugh quietly, then look down at our hands. I flip mine over and interlace my fingers with his, wanting this moment to last forever. “Or that you were so good at rescuing women from fast-flowing, vampire-fish-filled rivers?”
“I certainly didn’t know that about myself.”
I let my smile fade. “And this trip forced me to face a side of myself I’d rather not know about. The judgmental side, and the petty side of me too.”
“You’re not nearly as bad as you think you are,” he says.
Shaking my head, I say, “I won’t be anymore, and I have to say a lot of it is because of you.”
His eyebrows raise. “Really?”
“Yeah. What you said about not letting my family make me feel like less. That stuck with me. It’s going to take some work, but I can see the truth now. I don’t need to prove myself anymore. I sure as hell don’t need to explain myself to people who won’t understand anyway.” I let out a contented sigh. “I’m going to let that all go and stop trying to fight to be the smartest person in the room all the time. Just think of all the time and energy I’ll have for important things.”
He smiles at me, his gaze doing all the things it always does, and reminding me of how much I’m going to miss this when we get off this plane. “I’m glad for you, Gwen. That’s going to make you so much happier, and if anyone deserves to be happy, it’s you.”
“You do too,” I tell him. “You’re not who I thought you were.”
Giving me a half grin, he says, “I hope not.”
“You’re not. Not a bit,” I tell him, needing him to know how wonderful he really is. “You’ve changed so much from the person I met at the start of this trip. You’ve opened up, and I know you won’t want to hear this, but you’ve become a bit of a believer.”
Narrowing his eyes, he says, “I have not.”
“Sure you have. You let yourself get pretty ‘drugged’ at the ceremony.”
“If you’ll remember, you did too.”
“Oh, I know, but I wasn’t the one insisting that it wouldn’t affect me.”
