Unloved

by Katy Regnery

I long for someone. In my loneliest moments, I long for someone so fiercely, it aches. I want someone to hold me, to whisper in my ear, to braid their fingers through mine and breathe against my skin. I want to know love again. In fact, I actively yearn for it, though I can’t actually imagine accepting it.

I wish I was the sun so I could shine down on her, so I could examine every peak and valley of her face until I have it memorized and can recall it at any lonesome moment: the sad, beautiful, green-eyed girl from the forest.

Anyone with half a brain loves romance novels, and the rest are lying.

There is no me without you. . . . and it’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before.

“Sooner or later everyone was driven to love someone they could never have.”

Saying goodbye doesn’t mean forgetting. Moving on doesn’t mean you never loved him. I’m telling you to let go. I’m telling you that you’re allowed to be happy.

I don’t know that I’ve ever mulled the idea of God custom-making one person for another. But if I had wondered, meeting Brynn would almost be enough for me to turn the corner from conjecture to conviction.

The minutes I’ve spent with her are the greatest gift my quiet life has ever known.

I love her. I will love her until the sky falls. Until the sun and moon fail to rise.

Until Katahdin crumbles. I will love her forever.

“You are . . .,” he murmurs breathily, moving his hips up experimentally as his tongue darts out to wet his lips, “the greatest . . . treasure . . . of my entire life.”

You are, and will forever be, my life’s greatest treasure, and I will still be loving you on the day I die, Brynn Cadogan.

This woman, my wife, gave me back my life, and in her body she grows a life that is half her and half me. Together, they are the miracle I longed for, but never thought I could have, and my heart stutters at the thought of anything happening to them. I will protect them and cherish them until the light fades from my soul. I will never, ever take them for granted. I will live my life in reverence and thanks.