Her eyes hold mine, luminous with unshed tears. “Aidan…” she starts. There’s a pain in her voice that I suspect has more to do with us than with her father.
My heart freezes. “What?”
She looks behind me at the person waiting to talk to her. “We’ll talk later.”
I feel dismissed. I consider waiting to talk to her but decide to go home instead. We’ll have many opportunities to talk whenever she returns to work.
If she returns to work.
I’ve seen the headlines, already speculating about unknown reports that she’s returning to her movie. I’d dismissed them because…she wouldn’t.
Would she?
She wouldn’t return to L.A. so soon after losing her dad.
She wouldn’t leave the play.
She wouldn’t rip my heart open like that again.
Let’s talk later.
About what?
At home, I try to stop focusing on the chaotic thoughts and suspicions.
She’s torn the earth from beneath my feet before. Why would she hesitate to do it again?
I fall asleep and wake up to the sound of knocking.
When I open the door, I’m not surprised to find Liz on the other side. She’s changed from earlier and is now wearing a light sheath dress and walking shoes. Her face is hidden by a big pair of dark glasses.
“Can I come in?”
I step back to let her inside. She pulls off the glasses and watches silently as I close the door.
I want to ask her about my suspicions, but now they’re the farthest thing from my mind.
I take a step toward her and she falls into my arms, naturally, as if she belongs there.
Because she does belongs there.
She is mine. She has always been mine. The same way I’m hers, body and soul.
“Aidan,” she moans, burrowing into my chest.
My arms tighten around her. I kiss her forehead, then smooth her hair.
“I need you,” she whispers. Her voice is shaky, heavy with a mixture of sadness and surrender.
“You have me,” I murmur in her ear.
She releases a choking breath, then lifts her face toward mine. Our lips meet and I forget everything else.
Just her.
And me.
As it should be.