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She blushed, remembering the exact moment, too, and replied, “Good, because it looks like you have everything you need.”
“Now I do.” Then I cleared my throat and said, “Hi, I’m Lance. And you must be Gemma?” I asked, trying to get things on the right track for her.
“Yes, I’m Gemma.” She laughed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, what are we doing?”
“You like things neat, Gem, and our story is far from that,” I explained my way of thinking. “So I figured it’d be best if we start over.”
“But I don’t want to start over or pretend like it didn’t exist. I was recently reminded that things are messy and life’s not perfect. In fact, I kind of like it that way.”
I smiled, remembering the night she had that epiphany about life. She was staring at the painting Mason made that I had framed. At that time, though, she never confessed to liking a messy life. I supposed a lot had changed, that maybe Sophie was right and I helped her see things a different way. “So what now?” I asked.
“Now I finally do something that makes me happy and stop worrying about everyone else.”
“Wow, that sounds like a new version of Gemma.”
“You like her? I call her Gemma 2.0.”
I shook my head. “I can get on board with this new you, but no 2.0, okay?”
She raised a brow.
I explained, “That means there was something wrong with the old version and that you needed improvements. You were perfect. Still are.”
She smiled. “It’s nice of you to say that, but, Lance, I was wrong. Three years ago at that hotel room, I should have never left. I should have stayed. I should have fought for you and said what I felt in my heart.” She looked upward before looking back at me, as though knowing this was something she needed to do to move forward, but it was hard on her.
I needed her to know, though, that she didn’t need to do this for me. I already had everything I wanted right here. I didn’t want to live in the past and didn’t think she should, either. “Gem, you don’t need to do this,” I said, trying to stop her.
She shook her head and swallowed. “Please let me.”
When I didn’t stop her again, she continued, “I was scared, so afraid that you might hurt me, or that I might get my heart broken. The truth was, I withdrew in my shell after that, because as much as I swore it was just fun, it was so much more than that. Maybe it started out that way, but it became more. And I wanted more. I wanted to be with you. I wanted to make it work. But I was scared.” Her voice cracked on the last part and it took everything in me not to take her in my arms and hold her there.
“I think it’s best we look forward now. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to thank my lucky stars that you and I connected again and that we’ve been given another chance to make this work.”
“Only because you fought for us,” she noted. “And I haven’t figured all of it out yet, but I don’t want to have a long-distance relationship. So I’m going to stay here. Nothing is really tying me down. My job can be remote, more so now than ever since I have a staff back home and technology has improved. My sister’s getting married and going to have her own life pretty soon. And I can always commute if I need to. I want this, Lance. I want to make this work.”
I found her hand at the side of her and held it, bringing it to my lips. “I want that, too.”
I laced our fingers together and smiled at her. “We better get going, beautiful.” I tilted my head toward the resort. “Wouldn’t want to get bit up by those mosquitoes.” I winked.
She smiled at me and got on her tip-toes, planting a kiss on my lips. “Lance, I’m glad we met again.”
“Fate,” I said, thinking back on what she asked me earlier about fate, “it works in mysterious ways.”
Epilogue
Lance
6 months later
“You know,” I started saying as I came up behind Gemma and began kissing her neck.
She moaned and moved her head, giving me better access. In between kisses, I continued, “You can leave these dishes here and come hang out with the guys and I.”
She turned around in my arms and stared back at me with those beautiful brown eyes I could look into for the rest of my life. And if I had it my way, that was exactly what I would be doing. No more leaving. No more uncertainty. We weren’t on borrowed time anymore, and there was a certain ease in knowing that she wasn’t going anywhere. Gemma was mine, all mine. I didn’t think I’d ever get over that.
“I know, I know,” she said, “but I think I’ll just go upstairs and check on Mason.”
I watched her eyes dart toward the stairs, where Mason was in his room already fast asleep.
