Page 57 of The Summer You Were Mine
“You love me,” he said, cutting her off. He dipped his head to catch her eyes again and held her there with no place to run.
“And you love me.” She stared back.
“I do,” he said, scooting closer with his chair. “I am sorry it took me this long to say it. And it might never not be weird, but I’m going to start saying it a lot. Are you okay with that?”
“I don’t know. Let’s try it and see.” She grinned.
He took her face in his hands and brushed his lips against hers. Ellie felt the warmth of his mouth, the electric sparks over her skin, the coolness of the night air. And then there it was—the voice was familiar, but the words were completely new. “ Ti amo, Eleonora .”
Ellie’s eyes squeezed shut as she melted into him. She threw her arms around his neck and he reached for her waist, pulling her to sit on his lap.
“ Anche io ti amo ,” she whispered into his ear.
He squeezed her tighter and sighed, then drew his mouth to hers again.
Heat grew in her chest and extended down as the kiss turned deeper, more intense.
Her hands slid up the back of his shirt as he gently nudged her head aside to drop smaller kisses along her neck.
“It’s still a little weird, right?” he asked, his voice tickling the skin behind her ear.
“It’s totally weird,” she agreed, ducking away from the overwhelming sensation on her neck with a smile.
“As weird as me bringing you this pie?”
“No, but it’s as weird as us letting it sit here.
Are you hungry?” Ellie pulled up the lid.
The pie was as tall and fully stuffed as she remembered, with deep-purple fruit visible through the slits in the sugared crust. She pulled off a corner of sparkling golden-brown pastry and took a small bite before holding the rest out to Cris.
“Always,” he said, leaning in to eat the crust from her fingers.
“Good,” she said, kissing a sugar crystal off his lips. “Because I hate to be the only hungry one in the room.”
“I can confidently say that as long as you and I are in the same room, you won’t be the only one hungry.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. So now I need to ask you a question. Wait. I need to ask you two questions,” he corrected, his face turning serious.
“Go,” she said, shifting her body to face him.
“First. Were you ever going to tell me you love me?”
“Yes. Maybe.” She thought, her eyes flicking up.
“No, yes . But I hadn’t figured out exactly how to do it.
I had one exploratory phone call with Greta.
” She’d spent the first ten minutes of the call dumping an emotional tidal wave on Greta, who just smirked while murmuring “Mm-hmm.” Then Odie started zeroing in on a spider plant and Greta had to promise to call back ASAP.
“And?”
“The findings remained inconclusive. But I would have figured something out.”
“Fair. Ready for the next question?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” he said, letting out a breath. His eyes roamed over her face, taking her in.
He reached up and brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek.
“I know there’s still a lot of road to travel before we’re both done following our plans, but Ellie, I don’t want to miss you anymore.
I don’t want to just be in the same room as you, I want to be in the same life as you.
I want to come home to you. I want you to come home to me.
I want to be around you so much that it gets boring.
I want to know how you sleep and what kind of soap you use and if you like my recipe for quesadillas. ”
She cocked her head to the side. “You need a recipe for quesadillas?”
“It’s all about the ratio of cheeses, amore ,” he said, laughing.
“And not only that, I want to figure out how to fold towels the way we like, call you from the grocery store and say, ‘They don’t have that thing you wanted, what can I get instead?’ I want to go get you cold medication in the middle of the night.
Ellie, I want to do that thing where we scroll through Netflix and put the movies in the list to watch later and then eventually wonder why we put them there at all. You know what I mean?”
“I think I do.”
“I’ve never done those things with anybody. I want to do them with you. And we’ve been apart for too long now. I know you don’t know exactly where you’re going to end up and neither do I, but when these three months are over, do you think…” He paused. “Would you want to try living a life with me?”
“Yeah, I think I do.” She smiled. “But just so you know, I never get colds.”
“That’s okay,” he said, putting his arms around her again. “I’ll go get you something else in the middle of the night—anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“Even if it’s you?”
“Especially if it’s me.”
Ellie reached for one of his hands. She pulled it up between them and looked straight into his eyes, then squeezed twice.
Cris leaned forward, diminishing the small space between them.
He kept his eyes on hers and squeezed her hand back—once, twice.
She erased any remaining distance, drawing her mouth to his.
She stopped wondering if it made sense, if it was the right thing to do, if her heart could stand it.
Instead she let herself take another snapshot of this moment to file away with all the rest—like blueberry pie and pouring rain, like Ferris wheels and moonlight.