My heart flutters and my chest feels so damn full. Everyone I care about in the world is in this room right now, and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Nurse Lane comes in and checks his vitals again, and pages the doctor.
Then, his strength returning a bit, Gramps turns back to Cassidy and me. “I knew…” He speaks haltingly, determined to put forth the effort even as Nurse Lane tries to coax him to relax. “I knew you two were perfect for each other… just like me and Carol. Had to… had to stick around long enough to see you together.”
Then he rests his head back on the pillow and lets Nurse Lane do what she needs to do. The doctor comes in soon, and Cassidy and I are ushered back out to the waiting area so they can perform some tests and find out what toll the stroke had on Gramps.
But he’s awake, and they tell us he’s out of the woods.
“Oh, Chuck,” Cassidy says as soon as we’re alone again. “I’m so glad he’s okay.”
She throws her arms around my neck, trying to hug me, but I steal a kiss instead. “I am too. And I’m glad you’re here with me.” I take her hands in mine. “Cassidy… I know this is not nearly as romantic as lying on a blanket together and staring up at the stars. In fact, it might be the least romantic setting imaginable… but I can’t wait another day to say this—or even another moment.”
Her brows furrow. She’s looking at me with such intense concentration, and her eyes are alight with emotion.
God, she’s beautiful.
“Yes, Chuck?”
“Cassidy, I love you,” I tell her. “I know this was just supposed to be some casual fling. We were never even supposed to go on a second date. You may not be looking for forever, and I didn’t think I was either—until I met you. Cookie, I want forever with you.”
13
Cassidy
I’m speechless.
It’s been one hell of a night, shifting rapidly from anticipation to fear and sorrow, and now this… this unbelievable sentiment from a man who makes my heart skip a beat whenever he looks at me.
“You do?” I finally manage to ask.
“Yes,” Chuck says. He’s got both my hands clasped in his own, and his warm brown eyes are melting my insides, smoldering inside me. “Cookie, I can’t pretend any longer that what we’re doing is just casual—I think I loved you the first minute I saw you.” He smirks and adds, his voice lowered, “Definitely by the first time I made you come.”
My cheeks are burning and my heart is racing.
I’m thinking about the conversation I had with my mom right before I left the house tonight. She’d think I was nuts if she knew I was hesitating right now—hopeless romantic that she is, she’d be telling me to jump into his arms and tell him I feel just the same.
Because I do.
I love him.
“When I walked down the stairs the night of our blind date and saw you for the first time,” I say, “I thought that you were the man of my dreams. I couldn’t have built a more attractive mate from whole cloth.” Now it’s my turn to smirk. “But at the restaurant, I kind of thought you were a dud.”
Chuck laughs. “Yeah, I knew I was blowing it then. I was just trying so damn hard not to listen to the little voice in my head that was telling me how perfect you were.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” he says. “I redeemed myself, right?”
I nod. “A few times over.”
“Hey, it’s nearly midnight,” Chuck says, glancing at his watch. “Let’s go outside for a few minutes. Maybe we don’t have to miss the meteor shower after all.”
I let him lead me through the hospital and we find a door out to a courtyard where employees and patients can get a little fresh air. It’s deserted at this time of night, and the air is brisk. Chuck pulls me close to him, wrapping his jacket around me while we stare up at the sky. A few faint meteors streak across it.
There’s a lot of light pollution because of the hospital, and this isn’t nearly as sexy as watching the sky from a blanket in Chuck’s expansive back yard, but as I snuggle against him, I know that I don’t need romantic surroundings. I don’t need big adventures, or even grand gestures.
All I need is him.
“The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them,” I say softly, and Chuck bends his head down to kiss my temple.
“Hmm?”
“That’s a quote from The Secret Life of Bees,” I tell him. “Charles mentioned it during the book club discussion and it’s one of my favorites. It’s the truth.”
Chuck takes my waist in his hands, turning me to face him. “Cookie, tonight has made me realize just how fleeting life can be. We don’t get any guarantees. My grandfather almost died tonight, and my parents died in their thirties, when they were just a little older than I am now and they still thought they had so much living left to do. I don’t want to waste another minute of my life, and I sure as hell don’t want to live with regrets about the things I didn’t do just because I was scared.”