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I promise, our wedding would have been screaming “Charlie!” from the rooftops.We’d be barefoot, on the beach,people cheering and dancing and laughing. There’d be good music and better energy and just, I don’t know, the kind of love that could heal the whole damn world.

And it will.

It has.

Loving Nick has brought me a peace, a sense of purpose. I’m free from the fear of getting it wrong. Of not being enough. Free from the uncertainty of what the future might hold.

Because when I look at him, when I feel his touch, I know.

It’s him and me and me and him, wrapped in the unblinking truth of our love. Yes, we will have hard times. Sure, we’ll face our share of trials.

But the overriding truth of it, ofus,will be a love so pure it existed from the first moment we met and will continue to exist through every second, minute, hour, and year we spend together.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Nick says, pressing a kiss into my hair.

“They’re beautiful tonight.”

Nick tilts my chin up, his eyes locking onto mine with a warmth that makes my heart stutter. “Beautiful thoughts from the most beautiful soul,” he murmurs, brushing his thumb over my cheek. “But for the record, Charlie, every thought you have is beautiful to me—because they’re yours.”

Laughter, warm and welcome, bubbles up from somewhere in my heart and I press my cheek to his chest. “Oh, you cheesy, wonderful, brilliant man.”

“Whatever I am, I’m yours.”

A smile blooms and I meet his eyes. “I love you, Nick Hutton.”

“I love you, Charlie Hutton. Forever and ever, for the rest of our days.”