so illogical that I know it was meant to be. Some force, maybe fate, brought us together. I know it’s meant to be.”
She smiled. “It’s hard to argue that.”
“I’m still scared though.”
Her eyes searched my face. “Why?”
“It’s been almost too easy.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Easy?”
“Yes, you literally walked back into my life, and sure we had a few things to clear up, but doesn’t this feel easy? You and me here right now? This feels so natural. Effortless.”
She scrunched her nose. “I think we deserve a little easy after everything we’ve been through.”
I nodded and leaned my head back. “Maybe we had to go through so much hardship to prove ourselves. To see the absolute best and worst in each other and still choose to be together. Every relationship goes through tests, we just got hit with a really tough one early on.”
“We do tend to do things out of order.” She let out a small laugh. “I only learned to trust you recently though.”
“You didn’t before?” I asked.
“Well, back then I did, but that kind of went out the window. I didn’t know if I could forgive you, until you told me why you left. The pain you felt and how lost you were, that’s when I finally understood. That’s when I knew I could trust you again.”
“Because I told you?”
“You were honest and vulnerable. You admitted your mistake and helped me understand. That’s something I needed from you without really knowing it. It would have been one thing to just tell me you were sorry, but it was more that you opened up and explained your feelings. I saw how horrible you still felt about it. I knew you were sorry for leaving, but seeing how much you missed our son?” She cleared her throat. “That’s what did it. I needed to know I wasn’t mourning him alone.”
I squeezed her. “You were never alone.”
“We’ve already been through more than most couples endure in a lifetime.”
I nodded. “We needed to make those mistakes to learn from them.”
She smiled and trailed her fingers along my cheek and jaw. “We know how to talk to each other now. I don’t think either of us were ready at eighteen.”
“Are you ready now?” My heart stopped beating while I waited. I never let myself imagine this moment. It hurt too much knowing it would never happen, but now…
Her finger traced my lips. “Yes.”
She sat up, and I pulled her toward me. Our eyes connected for a moment and a fire light inside me before I leaned in and captured her lips with mine. Home. I was finally coming home. I breathed her in, and my whole body relaxed. I missed everything about her, but the way she made me feel when we kissed was an otherworldly experience.
It was just us. We were all that existed as her tongue slid along the seam of my mouth. I opened to her and ran my hands through her hair. She gripped the front of my shirt, holding us together. This was all I ever wanted. All I needed.
My Taylor was back.
23
Taylor
“Taylor Lynn Klein!” Oh boy. Carrie was going full-blown mom on me.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” I checked that no one was waiting outside the break room. When I texted my sister about last night, I hadn’t expected her to immediately call me, so I ran to the nearest room with a door I could close.
“I can’t believe you’re jumping back into his arms. After all he put you through.”
I sighed. I’d already told her about him opening up to me and how much he’d been hurting. He needed his family back then as much as I did. It wasn’t his fault they were in another country.
“If I’m able to forgive him and move on, then you and Mom and Dad need to also.”
“You know they will. They were always Team Jason. I was the one who had to remind everyone that he broke your heart.”
Maybe my parents saw what I wasn’t able to back then. They had the maturity and experience to know that Jason was taking care of himself the best way he knew how. The rare times they spoke about him in the years since our breakup, they were careful not to speak negatively. Unlike Carrie who took every opportunity to bash him.
It was like they knew there was a chance that one day we might find each other again, and they didn’t want to taint the potential.
“He was heartbroken too. Neither of us