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Ainsley stroked Rachel’s upper arm.

>

“I never doubt you when you say it,” she said.

“Good, because I can guarantee you I will never lie about how much I love you.” Rachel tucked a stray lock of Ainsley’s blonde hair behind the doctor’s ear. Everything her soul needed was right here in this bed with her. She had been hoping all her life to find this, what she was feeling for Ainsley. For the longest time, she had been expecting to find it with a man and yet she had never—not once—come close. Why that was, she didn’t particular care anymore. It simply did not matter. She was at a place beyond happiness now and it didn’t matter that her conductor to this place had been a woman—an unbelievably beautiful, super intelligent and funny woman who was also off-the-charts sexy as well.

“You’re stuck with me,” Rachel added.

Ainsley smiled and Rachel noted how her eyes were glistening.

“Do you mean that?” Ainsley asked in a whisper. “Because, seriously, Rachel, you’re who I want to be stuck with. I can’t get enough of you. I just love you so much.”

Now Rachel smiled.

“Even though I’m about to yell at you for leaving a bra in the kitchen sink last night?” she asked.

Ainsley frowned.

“I didn’t!”

“You did,” Rachel confirmed. “What I want to know is, what were the steps you followed in that pretty head of yours which led you to A: remove your top and bra in the kitchen last night, and then B: leave your bra in the kitchen sink?”

“Actually in the sink?” Ainsley asked, wincing. “Not, like, next to it?”

“In, baby,” Rachel told her. She then propped herself up on one elbow. “What is it with you and bras? Do they just jump off your body at the oddest places once you get home?”

Ainsley groaned and blushed.

“I’m hopeless, I know!” she said. She scootched a little closer to Rachel. “Am I still stuck with you? Or have you decided you just can’t take anymore of me and my strange quirks?”

Rachel chuckled and brought her lips to Ainsley’s for a kiss.

“What I’ve decided,” she said afterwards, “is that if we ever do live together, we are definitely getting a maid.”

“Housekeeper,” Ainsley corrected.

“Fine, housekeeper,” Rachel said. “And I’ve also decided that I wouldn’t be able to live without your strange quirks, my darling love. They’re what make you Ainsley and I fucking love Ainsley.”

“Mmm,” Ainsley purred. She snuggled even closer to Rachel.

Rachel, her heart soaring, knew this was it. This was all she needed. Other aspects of her life were in flux and would always remain so. Her career, for example, would always go through fits and starts. Her siblings back in Maine would eventually marry and have children, making her an aunt. Friends here in California would move away or even start families of their own.

But this…Ainsley here in bed with her, in her arms, the love between them so strong and palpable it could almost be seen…this would remain forever, she knew.

Rachel had found her person. She had found her one true love. And she had never been happier.

Epilogue

Four months later

“Read my lips,” Krissy hissed. “Don’t. Hit. It. Towards. Rachel!”

Ainsley glared at her.

This set had been frustrating but by some miracle, on that last play, their team had earned the point and the serve. She didn’t need Krissy stating the obvious.

“Gee, really, Kris?” Ainsley whispered through gritted teeth. “What a profound bit of coaching! Let me call up the Olympic squad and ask them how you’re not on their sideline!”