Page 83

It was a box.

There was writing on the outside. It simply said. “Bring your fork.”

“I was going to give it to you after Lily was born, it was supposed to be waiting here when we got home. Then the coma happened, then life happened, and the longer I waited the more I doubted you’d accept it. I was going to give it to you today and tell you everything, but instead you turned into a bigger ass than a few years ago, a feat, even for you.”

I stared at the handwriting and very slowly opened the box and pulled out another.

It was waffle mix.

She’d gotten me waffle mix.

And on that box she’d written. “Make that two forks.”

I dropped it onto the ground.

I couldn’t see my hands.

I couldn’t feel my body.

I moved.

And then I had her in my arms and I was kissing her, mouth fusing to hers in pressure so filled with pain that I was sick with it.

She jumped up.

I caught her in my arms again still kissing her and shoving her against the wall. Her hands reached for my shirt, pulling it over my head.

“I love you,” she panted between kisses. “I loved you since before I hurt you. I hurt you because your love was scary, Ace. I hurt us because once you say the word out loud?—”

“You can’t take it back,” I whispered against her mouth. “Please, please,” I begged. “Don’t fucking take it back.”

“Never.” She jerked my head back by the hair. “I really, really hope you’re done with that stupid fast or I’m going to kill you.”

“Can I start with you?” I was already tugging off her shorts.

“Yes, yes, please.” She helped kick them off.

We were a flurry of anger, pain, tears, and clothes flying all over the kitchen. Waffles forgotten, windows, cameras, past, present.

It wasn’t normal.

It was spectacular.

Uniquely us.

When she was finally bare to me, I lifted her by the ass and thrust into her. I couldn’t wait. I was desperate. “Your body is mine.”

“Yes.” A tear slid down her cheek. “Yours. Only yours.”

With each movement of my hips her nails dug deeper into my back scarring it the way my pledge to her had scarred my front. “I love you, Raven Alfero.”

Her eyes flew open. “Say it again.”

I was so close, it had been so long. Our bodies slid together again, every muscle strained to make the moment last longer. “I love you. So much.”

She clenched around me, her heels digging into my ass.

I let go.