He’s here.
I spare no thought for the rain. I rush to him and crash into his body. He’s soaked through, rain dripping off his face, his hair plastered to his head, but he’s more gorgeous than he’s ever been.
“How?” I breathe, clutching at him like if I don’t hold him to me he’s going to vanish into thin air. “How are you here?”
“Well, first I flew, after that I tracked your iPhone.”
I stifle a laugh. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“You are?” He lets out a sigh of relief. “I was worried you wouldn’t want to see me.”
“Never,” I breathe.
“But you left.”
I close my eyes. “Because I’m an idiot.”
“Being without you has been hell, Nova. I couldn’t let you stay away. I should’ve gone after you the moment you left, but I was stunned. Not anymore, though. I promise you this, from this day forward, where you are I am. You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
“I love you. I feel like my heart’s finally beating for the first time since I left.”
He clutches my face between his hands. “You are everything to me. Everything.”
I clutch his shirt in my fist and inhale a breath. I finally feel whole for the first time in a week. Leaving was the dumbest decision I ever made. You can’t run from your problems.
He looks at me very seriously, and as much as I want to kiss him, something tells me I need to wait.
“I’ve never believed in marriage,” he begins, “but apparently I need to make things more official with you.”
I laugh and he grins. “So, repeat after me … I, Nova Clarke, vow to never leave the love of my life, Jace, ever again.”
“I, Nova Clarke, vow to never leave the love of my life, Jace, ever again.”
“Do you vow to love me through the storms and the sunshine?”
“I do.”
The water pours down on the both of us, I’m chilled and soaked to the bone, and yet there’s no place I’d rather be.
“Do you vow to love me until the end?”
I swallow thickly and begin to cry, my tears carried away by the rain.
“Yes,” I breathe. “I do.”
He grins. “You may now kiss your …”
I silence him with a kiss and my soul scorches at the feel of his lips. I don’t need to hear what he was going to say. He’s my everything and that’s all I need to know.
His hands cup my cheeks and he angles his mouth more fully against mine. The rain mingles with our kiss, but somehow it only makes it sweeter.
I could stand here forever, beneath the pouring rain, as long as I had him at my side.
He’s the beat of my heart.
The breath in my lungs.
The man of my dreams that I never knew to hope for.