minutes as we take in the area’s beauty and the peacefulness surrounding us. “I feel different,” he says, stopping in a spacious area, allowing us to float freely.
“What do you mean?”
Colton shrugs and smiles, peering up to the sky. “I never follow my gut, you know? Especially since my gut says things like ‘Go look for a random girl in London,’ but I think I need to follow my gut more often now.”
“Always follow your gut,” I tell him.
“Oh crap,” he says, “There are more rain clouds coming in. I’ll get us out of here.” I’m not worried about the rain. I like the rain, but I can’t speak for him.
Colton puts all his effort into rowing the boat as fast as he can back to the docks, but we don’t make it faster than the incoming clouds. Rain is pelting us as we pull up to the dock and Colton jumps out first to tie the boat up. “Come on. Don’t slip,” he says, grabbing my hand. He pulls me toward the overhanging tree, where we both stand, soaking wet. I laugh because life is raining on us, and it’s ironic.
However, without a fleece in the mix, we’re both cold this time. “Is it okay if I put my arms around you? You’re shaking.” The smile isn’t leaving my face as I press my body against his firm chest. Colton wraps his arms around me, and I have never felt warmer in a rainstorm and more cared for by a stranger in my life. It’s perfect. It might be crazy and wild, but it’s perfect.
“I feel like I’ve known you forever. It’s weird,” he says. “It’s like the only thing I didn’t know about you was the way you look, and I imaged caring, big eyes, and a perky smile. I had that part down.”
“The world has a weird way of teaching us lessons, huh?” I offer as an insight to why this might be happening, but it still makes little sense. The rain becomes heavier and strong enough to break through the leaf-covered branches overhead. “We’re both going to pull out of this storm, you know. We’re both going to dry off and be okay.”
Colton is staring into my eyes, and my stomach tightens. My heart pounds, and the chills are ferocious. “I need you in my life. I need your words and inspiration. I’m sorry if this is absurd and abnormal, but I need to be around you.”
Since life doesn’t make sense to me anymore, and I’m done living by the rules, I press up on my toes, loop my arms around Colton’s neck and crash my lips into his. I have no options left but to let life take me on its ride. I’m not ready to throw my cards onto the table, but I’m all in.
Colton wraps his arms around me so tightly, it should scare me. Instead, I find an immense amount of relief from being within his embrace. His chest is against mine, and his heart is pounding so hard I can feel it inside of my chest. Rain continues to wash over us, and I don’t know if the universe is trying to send us a message, but when our lips part, so do the clouds, wrapping us with the sun’s rays, warming us from the rain.
“Sometimes, life will make us jump through hoops to end up where we’re meant to be,” I tell Colton.
“If that’s the case, I’m meant to be here with you.”
I trace the tip of my thumb along his cheek, dabbing up a raindrop. “Then be here with me, and we’ll see where life takes us next.”
Epilogue
A Year Later
“One cappuccino for you, and one Americano for me,” Colton says, placing my coffee down on the bistro table, where we met one year ago today.
“I love our Saturday morning dates,” I tell him.
“I love them more.”
Colton threw everything up into the air and played a little roulette like I did. He’s gotten himself a construction job and moved into my little house that Suzette left vacant three months ago to move in with her boyfriend. Colton was renting a flat for the first nine months so we could leave our first kiss to be the only thing we rushed. It turns out, we both rushed our first marriages and decided we needed time to date and fall in love, and take things one amazing day at a time.
“Are we having dinner with Suzette’s family tomorrow night?” Colton asks. He’s become a sucker for Mary’s cooking and Harry’s war stories that led him to become an artist. Everything just fits. It fits so well, I sometimes thank the Universe for breaking me so hard that I would know what’s real when it comes around.
“Of course. I heard Mary is making duck just for you.”
Colton places his hands on his chest and throws his head back. “Life is good. I’ll tell you, you are one smart woman for running away two years ago.”
“It was the best move I’ve ever made.”
Colton taps his coffee cup against mine. “Cheers to that.”
“Oh, I almost forgot.” I pull a small note out of my back pocket and hand it to Colton.
“I didn’t forget. I was not-so-patiently waiting,” he says, opening the note as fast as his fingers can move.
Colton said he fell in love with my words, but I wanted him to see how good the words can be, rather than the hateful ones he first saw.
I write him a note every week and hand it to him over coffee. The smile that percolates on his face each Saturday never lessens, so I look forward to these small moments.