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seethed that it was never actually the ones who did something wrong that struggled to sleep—it was the rest of us, left to deal with the fallout.
Brett?” “Brock. And yes, that’s him.” I snorted. Brock. My boyfriend of a year and a half cheated on me with a guy named Brock? Had my life suddenly transformed into a season of The Young and the Restless?
“AHH!” I screamed, jumping about ten feet in the air. Ruggedly. I screamed and jumped in a very manly and rugged way. I certainly didn’t yelp.
You’re not a burden. And you never know when you’ll meet someone who sees everything you are and loves you more for it.”
my ass doesn’t look fantastic after five months of climbing all these stairs, I’ll pitch a fit.
bear? I had no hope of outrunning a bear on a good day, let alone in Crocs. Or a hatchet-wielding serial killer, for that matter. Please, God, I cannot die in Crocs.
raccoon, then. Hi. I don’t want to startle you again. Can I sit by the fire? I won’t bother you.
Broader. He was just as handsome as I remembered, though. Not in a well-groomed, perfectly symmetrical kind of way, but more like, I could look at him for a very long time, maybe even sketch him, and never quite capture him fully.
What would it feel like to be trapped in the dark for decades?
lifted. I marveled at the power of being seen, of being understood, even if it was by just one person.
heaved a defeated sigh. “We’ll put a cut-up hot dog out for her tonight. But only for tonight. Will that make you happy?” Charlie’s eyes twinkled. “Yes. It would.” And that was how I became a beaded-curtain-believing man who fed a raccoon named Randy.
both. I couldn’t leave. Charlie would be cold without a fire. We hadn’t even celebrated his birthday yet. Tate grumbled something under his breath
“They’re for you. So you’re not stuck in the dark anymore.” He peered up and slowly spun around to take them in, something like awe on his face. His brown eyes glowed amber in the warm light. “You got me… lights.” I crossed my arms and uncrossed them, suddenly
along with it. It felt like Charlie was always meant to be tucked right next to me, curled into my warmth while the wind lashed sleet and snow against the windowpanes.
“For so long, it felt like I couldn’t leave this lookout. It felt like I was trapped. Now, though, I wonder.” “What do you wonder?” I whispered into the space between us.
“I wonder if I was only waiting.” I
long. The Thing was scared and lonely, too, and looked an awful lot like me.
good.” He yanked me down on top of him. “I don’t want anyone else, either, you know,” he said, kissing me roughly. “Even if I had billions to choose from. I’d find you all over again.”
wanna know what it’s like to be covered by you, to drown in you.”
Mouth slack, he could only nod, eyes glazed and staring at me as though I’d hung the moon, just for him.
“I’m terrified that going to see Tate’s grandmother and helping you remember what happened will take you away from me. I can’t stand it. But… If there’s even a remote possibility she can help us, that she can explain how you’re here, how I can keep you here, I’ll do it. I’d do anything to keep you, Charlie. I’d give everything I have. You say you’d follow me anywhere, but I’d go to the ends of the Earth for you.”
“I love you,” I whispered, voice warm and adoring. The confession just slipped out, and it was shitty timing, but I’d never felt more sure about something in my life. Judging by the way the emotion swelled in me, sudden and overwhelming, I knew I’d felt it for far longer than I realized. Charlie scoffed but leaned in to kiss me, hard and quick. “I’m not saying it back until it’s romantic again. Huddled in the dark with a serial killer outside is not how I want my first real love confession to go.” I grinned even though he couldn’t see and kissed his temple. “Alright.” “But I do, you know.”
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“Shh, no. Not yet. You don’t get to say it back yet, because we don’t have your twinkle lights on, and I want to spatchcock another chicken for you first. But I need you to know I will do everything in my power to carve out a life for us, whatever that looks like. There is no moving on from you. I’m not going to let you go, no matter what happens tonight.” He pressed his trembling lips to mine. “I promise I’ll always be able to find you. Wherever you go, I’ll be there, too.”
“I wanted to stay with you so much,” he finally choked out. “Even like this. Even if it meant I could never have a normal relationship with your friends or family, or we couldn’t go places together, or someday you’d pass away like everyone else, and I’d still be stuck here, like this. Even then… I would’ve snatched up that life with you, because you’re worth it. You’re so worth it. But not like this. Not at the expense of your life or your health. I won't take that from you.”
“I’m scared, Reece,” Charlie said. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this.” Smiling, I tugged him toward the door. “You are. And we’ll do it together. I’ll never let go.” “Promise?” “I promise.”
“The very first time I saw you through the window, you were bright—like the sunset. You were scowling,” he said with a tear-soaked laugh, “but so full of color and life. You yanked me out of that gray world I was in for so long. And then you closed the window.”
Charlie sat back down on the bed, scooting in close. “Aw, baby, don’t be jealous. You know you’re the only one I want to haunt.”
“Oh, no! I have to pee!” he exclaimed, scurrying out of bed and making for the door. I laughed so hard my whole body hurt, and it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
Charlie strode into the lookout ahead of me. “I miss being able to disappear and reappear at the bottom. This whole being alive business is not what it’s cracked up to be.”
And so, hand in hand with Charlie, always with Charlie, we did the scariest thing of all. We lived.
We’d never know. But in the aftermath, we’d found each other. We’d fought for each other. And if given the chance, I would never go back. I’d choose him. Over and over. And wasn’t that the most beautiful thing of all?
