Page 52 of Falling Backwards (The Edge of Us #1)

After everything, here we are. After the mistakes, the years, the animosity, the pain.

Through the kisses I’m treasuring one by one, the heart-swelling thoughts keep coming back to me, oddly gentle despite the overwhelming gratitude they bring.

Every time I think I finally understand peace because of him, he gifts me with a new facet of it.

His lips are the perfect press and pull with mine; I all but sink into this hug we’re wrapped in while I think, too, about how I’m the perfect match to his kisses.

And how he belongs in my arms just as much as I belong in his.

And how his, ‘I love you,’ was so, so much more than words.

It was a painstakingly discovered truth he couldn’t keep in. A bright joy he had to share. A warm promise he wanted to make.

It was all Luke. Heart and soul in the snowy darkness after everything.

Just like my echo of his words was all me—uncontainable, joyous, full of promise.

A perfect match, indeed.

The wind blows a harsh gust, throwing snow in our faces and making us slip out of our kisses with bigger shivers than what have already been upon us.

We try to resume for just a little longer, but the frigidity whips through again and all we can do is groan into laughing.

Then our teeth set to chattering now that our mouths aren’t so busy.

I brush my nose against his. As he reciprocates, I catch a flash of a grin on his lips.

After a moment, he hums.

“Hot chocolate?” he asks.

I nod and ask, too, “And TV?”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

On one hand, I abhor putting space between us. It lets the super cold air wash over me even more and it gets in the way of how much I love having his body close to mine.

On the other hand, I get a full view of the weightless radiance in his eyes, visible in the gold of the light pole; add it to his smile and the snow in his mess of dark hair, and this is a sight I’m blessed to get to see.

My fingers have pretty much gone numb by now, but I still make them work enough to lace with his—and I still manage to feel his settle in tight.

“Let’s go,” I agree.

Oh, how weightless and radiant and smiling I am, too, as we walk together out of this night but not out of this moment.

I can’t wait to carry it with us into all the days ahead.