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by Jennifer Hartmann

Human beings were so damn resilient. We saw color through blackened vision, latched onto hope in hopeless places, and loved with every damaged piece of our broken-down hearts.

As we sat there, Reed lifted his hand from his lap and carried it over to mine. He took it inside his big, calloused palm, then intertwined our fingers together, squeezing gently, and I swore, I knew—this was the moment I fell in love with him.

“No one’s ever stood up for you like that before, have they? No one’s ever fought. And that’s bullshit. You deserve to have someone in your corner, fighting like hell for you. For your honor, your worth. I want to be that person.” He stared at me with an intensity that etched lines across his entire face. “I’ll be that guy…even if that’s all I’ll ever be.”

“You’d be surprised how easily good intentions can turn rotten. Every single one of us is capable of hurting the people we love most.” Emotion infected her words as she inhaled sharply. “Trust me. I know.”

“Falling for you has been the easiest thing I’ve ever done,” I confessed through the anguish. “Everything else? Painful. Torturous. Difficult beyond belief. But loving you…”

“Yes, Halley, I’m in love with you. I think I proved that when I threw myself under the bus and completely destroyed my relationship with my daughter to protect you. To keep her from hating you,” he gritted out. “So, yes…I love you. I love you fiercely, wholly, selfishly and unselfishly, more than I ever fucking should. I love everything about you, from your smile, to your perfect heart, to the way your hair always slips from your ponytail when you’re running or sparring and hides those eyes I’ve been enamored with since the moment I first saw you. I love how you take every picture like it’s the only one you’ll ever take, how you love like it’s simply a way of life, and how you cook from your soul because it makes everyone around you so goddamn happy. I love the strength you pulled from nothing, from bare bones and rock bottom, and how you choose to dance through life with grace and courage, finding music in every soundless shadow, when anyone else would have laid down and died.”

Slowly, despite everything inside of him telling him to remain stiff and lifeless, he raised both arms and wrapped them around me, pulling me closer. Love did that. It zapped your heart when it’d rather give out, and it possessed your arms when they wanted to droop instead of hold. He was defenseless. Love made us all so damn defenseless.