Say Yes (Nostalgic Summer Romance)

The crowd I’d forgotten roared its approval around us, a flurry of applause and whistles echoing through the streets of Florence.

And I broke the kiss long enough to whisper one word.

“Yes.”

“Were you nervous?” I asked Liam later that night as we lay in my bed. My bags were no more packed than they had been before the exhibit. In fact, the room was even messier now, with our clothes littered on the floor and the comforter kicked off the bed. We were naked in the sheets, spent from hours of showing just how much we missed each other.

“A little,” he admitted, resting his chin in his palm.

I was spread out on my stomach, and he was on his side, drawing secret shapes on my skin. I’d dug through my suitcase long enough to pull out my CD wallet, and Oasis softly played from the stereo in the corner.

“I hadn’t seen her since I left, and we were engaged when I did. I knew how much I had changed, and I suspected the same would be true for her.” He made a humming nose just short of a laugh. “Honestly, I was worried she’d clock me more than anything.”

“You’d have deserved it.”

“No arguments here.”

“Did she?” I asked, adjusting my head position on my forearms. “Hit you? Or scream? Or… I don’t know, throw things?”

“Surprisingly, no,” he said. “She cried, though. As soon as she saw me.”

“You seem to have that affect.”

He tried to smile, but it fell short. “She looks different. Her hair is shorter, her cheeks more hollow. She’s not the girl I met in college anymore. She’s a woman.”

“What did she say?”

“Not much, honestly. I did most of the talking. But… she told me about her new fiancé, about how happy he makes her. And when she said she forgave me…” He sighed. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed to hear that until I did.”

I rolled over to face him, pulling his knuckles to my lips and pressing a kiss there. “And your mom?”

“She and my grandma live together now.” He frowned. “Grandma’s not in the best of health. She told me she was worried she wouldn’t see me again before she died.”

“That’s heartbreaking.”

“It was. She and Mom both cried, too. And though Mom wasn’t afraid to tell me how angry she was when I left, and how badly it hurt her… she still forgave me, too.”

“Forgiveness is a powerful thing.”

“I don’t deserve it.”

“Most of us don’t,” I said. “But the funny thing about forgiveness is that it brings more relief to the person granting it than the person receiving it. Holding onto anger and blame is hard. It hurts. When we forgive, that’s when we can let go.”

Liam chewed on that for a moment before his eyes met mine. “You’re kind of smart, you know that?”

“Some would say Leonardo da Vinci smart.”

“Like the Ninja Turtle or?”

I poked his side.

“Ouch,” he said on a laugh, but then he pulled me into him, sweeping my hair from my face so he could kiss me properly. “Any other questions?”

“What did they say when you told them about me?”

He smiled. “Mom and Grandma said you sound like an angel sent straight down from God to save me.”

I snorted.

“Julie was relieved,” he added. “And happy for me. She said she worried I’d shut out anything close to love for the rest of my life after what happened.”

“You tried to.”

“I did,” he agreed with a sigh. “And then you had to come along and ruin my plans.”

I smiled, leaning into him for a long, slow kiss.

“What else?” he asked when we pulled away.

“I’m sure I’ll think of more,” I said, running my fingertip along the hair dusting his chest. “Right now, I think I’m still a little in shock.”

“I’ll answer them whenever you’re ready.”

I nodded. “Well, I guess I do have one more question.”

“Shoot.”

“What now? What do we do next?”

“What do we do next?” he echoed, cracking his neck before flopping onto his back. He pulled me into his chest, and I curled around him like a cat. “I guess we can’t stay here, can we?”

“Not unless you want to do another semester of school.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Nah.”

“So…?”

“I think we do something crazy,” he said, eyeing me with a cocked brow.

“Something crazy?” I repeated on a laugh. I pressed up onto my elbow, laying my hand on his chest. “Well, propose something. You already know my answer.”

“You’re going to say yes?” he asked, his brow arching higher. “To whatever I say next?”

“Yes.”

“You sure?”

I giggled. “Yes.”

“Okay. Move to Oregon with me.”

“Yes.”

He barked out a laugh. “You didn’t even hesitate.”

“There’s no hesitation in say yes night,” I reminded him. “What’s in Oregon?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Mountains. New stuff to paint.”

“Sounds like as good a reason as any to go,” I said with an unsure laugh.