Page 91 of Gravity

"Hey," I say softly, wrapping my arms around her and speaking with conviction. "This isn’t going to stop. And you're not going to lose me."

"You don't know that,” she whispers.

"I do. You're not going to lose me, Nora. I will fight with every last breath I have in me to keep you by my side." I cup her jaw, her eye’s now glassy. "You've made my heart feel whole again, Shortcake. You're everything to me. I promise you that."

“So swoony.” She smiles, coming up to kiss me. “I like it.”

I pull back and cock a brow at her. “So, I pour my heart out and all I get back is ‘so swoony’.”

“Uh huh.” She giggles.

I push her onto her back and cover her, pinning her arms above her head. Her infectious laugh begins to flow before I’ve even done anything. “Please don’t tickle me. I might pee myself.”

Her phone rings in her jacket pocket but she ignores it. “What makes you think I’m going to tickle you.”

“I know you too well. You have that look in your eye.”

“Maybe I want to fuck you again.” I kiss her neck, her collarbone, moving to the other side to repeat my path of kisses. The moment I feel her relax under me, I shift myself down her body and when I reach her stomach, I blow a huge raspberry. Her body curls, and deep, uncontrollable laughter bellows out into the night air.

“Why do you always do that?”

“It’s the child in me.”

“And I always fall for it.”

“Then you should pay more attention to my movements, Ms. Nelson. Besides, I love seeing you react like you do. Let’s hear it again.”

“No!” She giggles, but I ignore her, blowing twice more on her stomach as she tries to wriggle out from under me. “Stop. I can’t breathe. And I will pee myself.”

I laugh. “Not in my truck you won’t.”

Her phone rings again. “Oh listen. Saved by the bell.”

“For now.”

I shift off her, and she scrambles away from me to get her phone. I’m left thinking about how much fun has come from today. It’s been one of the best I can remember, all because of this woman next to me. She makes my soul feel complete, and my heart without a doubt is full of everything I’ve never had with any other woman.

Fuck, I love her, and I want to tell every man and woman in Virginia just how much, right after I tell her first.

But then, like the universe has other ideas, Nora answers her phone, and when her beautiful little face falls, everything stops.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Nora

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

My blood runs cold as the words repeat over and over in my head as I stand and look at the doctor, willing him to apologize for the mistake they’ve made and for his words to change to something different.

The silence that suddenly hits causes an ice-cold shiver to race down my spine, my heart feeling like it’s stopped. My body begins to shake and the thick lump in the back of my throat aches to the point I feel it will choke me as I try to decipher the words that have just shattered our world into a thousand pieces.

The soft cries of my mother begins to fill the room as those standing around me lower their heads with devastation. Meanwhile, an unbearable ache begins in my heart as I look at this doctor I’ve never seen before through unshed tears, speechless.

If they’d done everything they could, my dad would still be here.