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“Um, yeah,” she agrees, stepping out of my arms. “You kissed me”—I tilt my head to the side—“in front of everyone.”
“Okay.”
“Are we doing that now?” she asks, and I put my hands in my pockets. “Like, we kiss in private.” She wrings her hands together. “But we’ve never, you know, in front of everyone.”
“Do you not want to kiss me in front of everyone?” I ask, getting pissed.
“That’s not exactly what I said,” she retorts, and I raise my eyebrows. “It’s just that everyone is going to see and, well, then you know how gossip is...”
“Are you ashamed of me?” I chuckle nervously.
“Charlie,” she says, “don’t be ridiculous. I’m doing it to protect you.”
“Noted,” I say. “But I don’t give a shit if people gossip. I don’t care if people take pictures and post it on flyers in the middle of the town square.” I shake my head. “So now that we’ve concluded this portion of our talk, how about we get out there so we can celebrate?”
“Okay,” she agrees, walking to me and taking one of my hands in both of hers, “that sounds like a plan.” I pull open the door and walk out with her. “Also, we are going to discuss the dress.”
She looks down at her dress. “What’s wrong with my dress?”
“You’re missing a whole piece in the back,” I explain, pushing the door to the bar open as she laughs at me. I spend the night by her side, her hand in mine most of the time or my arm around her shoulders. There is no mistake at the end of the night that we are together. We get a couple of raised eyebrows and a couple of finger-pointings, and each time I make sure to lean down and kiss her lips. “Give them something to talk about,” I mumble to her each time.
We spend the night at my house, her dress in a heap at the front door, the rest of her clothes beside the bed. Her body curved into mine. Everything else is not even a blip on our radar.
The next morning, I bring her coffee in bed. “Will you come with me?” I ask as she looks up at me. “I want to take you somewhere.”
“I’ll go anywhere with you,” she agrees, getting up and sliding into her dress again. We go to her house, and she changes before I take her to the cemetery. She looks out the window as I drive up. “You okay with this?” I ask when I put the truck in park, and she nods, getting out of the truck.
I slide my hand in hers as we walk over to the grave. “I haven’t been here in eight years,” she admits to me softly. “I couldn’t.” My thumb rubs hers as we stop in front of Jennifer’s tombstone. “I miss her,” she says. “There isn’t one day that goes by I don’t think of her at least once.” She wipes the tears away from her face, looking up at me. “She loved you so much.”
I nod. “The feeling was mutual.”
“She must be pissed at me now that I’m with her man.” She laughs through her tears, and I look down at her.
“I don’t think she cares,” I say honestly.
“Then you don’t know anything.” She lets go of my hand and wraps it around my waist. “I would be pissed if you got with my best friend.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her closer to me, kissing her head. “But then Jennifer was nicer than me.”
“She might have done this,” I suggest. “She knew the both of us were hurting and needed each other.”
She looks up at me and then looks back down at the tombstone, squatting down in front of it. “I miss you so much,” she now whispers to her, “there is so much that has happened.” She laughs now as she wipes away a tear. “I bet you know already.” I smile as I listen to her talk to her. “I promise that I’ll take good care of him.” I close my eyes, blinking my own tears away. “We both love you so much and we’ll never forget you.” She presses two fingers to her lips before putting them on Jennifer’s name.
She stands up beside me as my hand moves to grab hers, sliding it with her fingers and feeling her. Making me settle just by her touch, she looks up at me. The streaks of tears down her face as she smiles, inhaling deeply before saying three words that I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to hear more in my life, “I love you.”
Here, in the middle of the cemetery where my dreams were shattered, I feel whole again. I feel like whatever path I was on and then did a detour led me to this moment right here. To this woman right here. To the fact I love her with every single fiber in my soul. I love her to the point that I never, ever want to be without her. I love her to the point where I don’t think I could breathe without her. She has cured me, and she had no idea she was doing it. I had no idea she was doing it until it was right there in front of me. “I love you.”
Epilogue One
Autumn
Six Months Later
“Hey,” Brady says, coming into the office with two plates in his hand, and my eyes light up.
“One of those better be for me,” I reply as he sets one plate with a burger and fries in front of me and then places his own in front of him as he sits down in his chair.
“Last time I came in here with food only for myself, you stole it from me.” He picks up his burger and takes a bite. “Didn’t even offer me anything.”
I pick up a french fry and dip it in the mountain of ketchup the chef put on there for me. “It was delicious.”
