When my hand skirted up her sweater over her stomach, she stopped me, pressing my palm flat to the slight curve.
I watched as her eyes filled with tears again, and she whispered, “Was going to name him King if you were really gone, but now, we’re back to Prince.”
Happiness like nothin’ I’d never known carbonated my blood and kicked like adrenaline through my heart.
“It’s not the same as being at home,” she admitted with a warbled smile, “but I brought some family with me.”
I kissed her before the last word was even fully formed, eating it off her tongue, holdin’ her so tight she could feel my bones through my skin, the race of my heart against her breasts, the relief and sadness and euphoria moving through me.
“Love you more than my life,” I said against her mouth.
“Yeah, honey, I think you proved that.”
And then, like I hadn’t done in months, like I hadn’t done since I’d last seen her glorious fuckin’ face, I threw my head back and laughed.
And Cress?
She did it with me.
* * *
The end.
“My Babe”––Whitehorse
“From Eden”––Hozier
“House of the Rising Sun”––The Animals
“Won’t Go Down Easy”––Jaxon Gamble
“I Want You, I Need You, I Love You”––Elvis Presley
“Good Times Roll”––The Cars
“Dangerous”––Royal Deluxe
“Devil’s Backbone”––The Civil Wars
“East of Eden”––Zella Day
“Glitter & Gold”––Barns Country
“This Is My World”––Esterly ft. Austin Jenckes
“Prisoner”––The Weeknd
“Stairway to Heaven”––Led Zepplin
“I Will Follow You Into The Dark”––Death Cab For Cutie
“All Right Now”––Free
“Heavy Is The Head”––Zac Brown Band ft. Chris Cornell
“The One”–– Kodaline
“Love Me Tender”––Elvis acoustic
“Reasons Not To Die”––Ryn Weaver
“Black Sea”––Natasha Blume
“When The Pary’s Over”–– Lewis Capoldi
“Where’s My Love”––SYML
“I miss you”––mxmtoon
“Brother”––Kodaline
“Lost Without You”––Freya Ridings
“Sense of Home”–– Harrison Storm
“You And I”––Barns Country
“To Be Alone With You”––Sufjan Stevens
“Only Love”––Ben Howard